Wolfstime
by Alsike
Summary: When Belle wakes up naked in the forest with a wolf on top of her, unable to remember the night before, everyone knows something bad must have happened. But what did happen, and who is responsible? But innocent until proven guilty is not a concept Storybrooke is very familiar with. And while the full moon is in the sky, werewolves aren't the only ones turning into beasts.
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, Ruby," Granny sighed.

Ruby didn't look up. She was busy holding onto the counter and trying to breathe through her mouth and not her nose. Smelling things was just not a good idea right now. It made her wolf lurch right through her and threaten to come out. And god, it wouldn't be the real full moon until the day after tomorrow. This wasn't _fair._

"Sorry?" Belle stuck her head into the kitchen. "Is everything all right?"

Ruby's body convulsed, and seemed to turn in two directions at once, toward her and toward escape. Belle frowned, eyes narrowing, and started toward her. Granny swooped in before this got out of hand. She caught Belle around the waist and encouraged her back out into the dining area. "Everything's under control," she said. "Wolf things. And _no_, you can't help."

Belle looked at her. "She ran out when I came in."

Granny would admit nothing. "It's just that time of the month. Now what can I get you?"

"Oh," Belle bit her lip slightly. "Actually, I just wanted to ask Ruby if, well… Emma and Mary Margaret want to take me out tonight, a celebration of sorts."

"Mmm," Granny said. "A month of no Rumpel relapses."

Belle's smile was a little strained. "Something like that. I wanted to see if Ruby would come. But if she's not well…"

"I'll come," Ruby leaned out of the door of the kitchen, still rather pale, her hand cupped around her nose and her mouth, but her eyes straightforward and intense. "I'll get this sorted out. I promise."

Granny huffed in exasperation. "Get back in the kitchen, you. You'll put the guests off their food."

"Only if you're really feeling better," Belle said. "If you're not, we can postpone, or do it again. I'm sorry I forgot it was so close to wolfstime."

A hint of Ruby's usual wide smile showed around her hand. "I'll be _fine_. I'll come."

Granny rolled her eyes at the girls grinning stupidly at each other and pushed Ruby back into the kitchen, shutting the door firmly and then making sure Belle had left before turning back to Ruby with a suspicious expression.

"You'll be fine, will you?"

"I was just… surprised," Ruby retorted, waving her hand to waft kitchen-scented air at her face. "I didn't expect the wolf to try to bolt until tomorrow. I'll be fine. Just got to get in control."

"Hmm," said Granny. "Just that, indeed?"

Ruby frowned, giving her grandmother a suspicious look. "What else might it be?"

"Heat," Granny said flatly.

Ruby blanched. "Oh no," she said. "That's like some made up stuff for teen werewolf books. That's not _real_. Is it?"

"Ask a wolf," Granny replied. "It's not unmanageable. But I'd expect to change tonight."

"Four nights?"

"Mmm, sometimes five. And I'd use this if you really are planning on going out tonight before the change." Granny handed Ruby a bottle of Vix.

Ruby cringed and her wolf recoiled even more. It _hated_ menthol. "_Why?_"

"It will keep the wolf under control, if you don't do anything _stupid_."

"I'm in control! I'm good now! I didn't even try to eat that deer that got hit by the car last month." Ruby – the human part – grimaced slightly. The wolf whined.

"Good," said Granny. "You've been practicing. You're going to need it."

x x x

Thirty days without Rumpel. Belle swallowed as she let herself back into the library and breathed in the calming scent of books. It was really only a drop in the bucket, to some extent. But it was the first drop, and more would elicit more, until she actually had the strength to turn him away for good.

He was still obeying her last command to leave her be, though he would watch her sometimes with sad lonely eyes. _What did I do wrong_? They seemed to say. And maybe it was nothing. He had just been who he always was. But she couldn't stay, not with all those memories clouding up her head: Belle's miserable past and twenty eight years of imprisonment, Lacey's sunny childhood and nights spent necking with teenage boyfriends in the backs of cars. And then the most recent memories: Rumpel's violence, his bruising magicless kisses, his clawlike hands grasping her hips.

He loved her. He wanted her back. He'd brought her memories back, put her back together again. But he couldn't erase what she'd seen. And what she'd seen was that he was a liar. He was the worst kind of liar: the one who thought he was telling the truth. He said that she made him better, but he had done worse things out of love for her than he had out of hate for anyone else. It hurt to deny someone who loved you what he thought he needed to be happy. But she was better than that, wasn't she? She was more than just a sop to stop a baby from crying. She deserved more.

Now she had friends who wanted to spend time with her. She had books and work and peace and quiet. That was more, wasn't it?

It was just, sometimes, when she was alone, it felt like less.

x x x

"Congratulations, Belle! If this was AA, you'd be getting your red chip!"

Belle smiled, looking confused, but raised her glass to accept Emma's toast.

Ruby, still trying to deal with the sulking wolf who couldn't smell anything because of the menthol, wrinkled her nose. "God, Emma, you're making it sound like an addiction." She was drinking soda. Her grandmother had seriously managed to ruin her night.

"It seemed kind of like an addiction." Emma wrinkled her nose. "And I should know. There seemed to be a lot of the, this time it will be different, I can handle it/him, I won't end up jacking somebody's car and driving it into the Charles."

"Oh, please do regale us with all your wonderful tales of delinquent youth," said Regina flatly. "Especially while you drink like a fish."

"Hey! I never had an alcohol problem!"

Regina raised an eyebrow.

"Projectile vomiting is not a problem." Emma winced. "Well, maybe. But it wasn't an addiction."

Ruby just sighed. Belle caught her eye and offered a small smile. Ruby smiled back. She wasn't the only one not amused by the bickering. She found herself reaching up to wipe the menthol off her nose, because she wanted to smell her, to see if she was wearing perfume tonight, or if she just smelled like old books and soap and clean sweat. But she pulled her hand back. That was what Granny had warned her about. The wolf wanted to find its mate, and letting it out could end in her racing around the Rabbit Hole sniffing the patrons inappropriately, and Ruby, really, did not want to try that.

"All right, another round," said Mary Margaret as she reached the table and set out the drinks. "Root Beer, Long Island, Blue Moon, and um… Black Russian."

Belle pushed aside her glass full of ice and snagged the second Long Island Iced Tea. Ruby laughed at her. "You like that as much as regular Iced Tea, don't you?"

Belle gave her a narrow-eyed glance. "There's no tea in this. The name is a lie."

"You like it though."

Belle grinned. "'s tasty. I like the sort of lemony flavor down at the bottom. Up top it's a little yucky."

"You would probably be just as happy with the mixers."

Mary Margaret and Regina were giving each other suspicious looks across the table. Ruby didn't have to smell their tension to have it make the back of her neck prickle as the hairs on it raised up into the air. Belle had glanced over at Regina, looked a little upset, and buried her attention in her drink, which was totally not the point of this whole event. Ruby sighed. Sometimes she had the worst friends. She flipped the can of Vix out of her pocket and redosed herself to the resentment of the wolf.

Belle gave her a curious look. "Do you have a cold?"

Ruby grinned. "I have a wolf, in a sniffing mood. I kind of want to keep it from getting up in anyone's business. But I am also bored of sitting here and not drinking." For a moment, Belle's face fell, and Ruby quickly reached out a hand and caught her wrist. "Wanna dance?"

The bright smile had to be a yes, and Ruby tugged her off the stool and out towards the floor. It was mostly empty, still a little early, but Ruby couldn't stay past moonrise, so she had to get her fun in on time.

Once there, where the beats were loud, Ruby stepped in close and spoke into Belle's ear. "You okay? I don't know why Emma keeps dragging Regina along to fun places. It's like she wants to make everyone miserable."

"It's fine," Belle replied, but the relief on her face from being away from that table, which… Ruby glanced back and noticed that the three remaining occupants had settled into an argument, was palpable. "If she really wants to change, she should be allowed to try. Everyone deserves a chance."

"To not be a monster?" Ruby murmured and let her hands settle on Belle's waist. She couldn't help feeling like a monster, especially today, with the wolf lunging and snapping inside of her. But Belle was the one who had never, ever believed she deserved punishment when, for all the sins she had committed, she only wanted to be good. Of course, the cruelest things she had done to Belle had been all the fault of her human side. The wolf wanted to rend and tear and howl, but the wolf had never wanted to hurt Belle.

Belle's eyes were crazy blue as they looked up at her, sympathetic and sort of hurt inside, in a way that made Ruby want to wrap her up in a fierce hug and never let her go. "To have friends as well."

"Yeah," Ruby said, restraining herself. She caught up Belle's hands and spun her, to an amused shriek. "You're mine, you know?"

"Your friend?"

Ruby laughed and nodded, because she shouldn't sound so _worried_. Constancy wasn't something she had much experience with though. "Mmm, more than that. My wolf likes you, and Granny likes you, and we don't abandon people we like. So, think pack. You're pack. You _always_ have us."

Belle was the one who hugged her, fierce and grateful, and Ruby slid a hand up her back and the other cupped the back of her head. "Thank you," Belle murmured into her shoulder. "It's been thirty days without him, and it's better, I know it's better. But it's like people don't realize that I can get lonely. But I do."

"Yeah, well," Ruby leaned in slightly and smelled her hair. Her wolf lurched, and goddammit, she really needed something stronger than Vix. Like a clothespeg. "Books are great when you're calm, but I doubt they do much when you want to howl."

"Is that why you howl? Because you're lonely?"

"I'm a lone wolf," Ruby said, smiling a little into Belle's intense gaze. "I'm the only wolf out there. There's no one to hear my howls. But I howl anyway. If that's not loneliness, what is?"

But she grinned when she said it, and turned, twisting Belle's hands in front of her to pull her into the music. "No more sad talk! Dancing!"

And they danced.

Mary Margaret came out to join them, and they made a circle, keeping out interlopers, the dancing turning goofy and enthusiastic by song.

"Oh," Belle, sweaty and panting, leaned into Ruby, who suddenly couldn't breathe with the cloud of her scent surrounding her. _Shit_, she thought to herself. She had been sloppy with the Vix, had sweated it off, and the wolf leaned in, Ruby bent toward her neck, taking a stiff, controlled breath.

"God, you smell good," came out on the other end of the breath. Belle looked up at her, still too winded to speak. Mary Margaret gave her a look like she had lost her head. Ruby's face would have flushed if it hadn't already been red with exertion. "Water," she half whimpered. "I need water." And she bolted from the dance floor.

"What's going on with you and Belle?" Mary Margaret asked as she came up behind where Ruby was pressing her half empty glass to her face.

"What? Nothing. She's my friend."

"Who smells delicious?"

God, she didn't _need_ this now. Trying to hold down the wolf was taking all her focus, and Snow was trying to make her talk about _feelings_. "It's _wolfstime_. Leave me the fuck alone."

Mary Margaret started at the defensiveness in her tone. "Sorry. I'm not trying to pry. Just, you know, I'd be fine with it if you two started going out."

Ruby glared at her. Her face was still hot, heart pounding. The wolf had pricked up his ears at the words, rose onto its haunches in excitement, and begged to howl. _Please, shut up_, she told it. "What part of the both of us being straight don't you understand?"

Mary Margaret held up her hands in surrender. "I always thought of you as the straight but not narrow type."

"That doesn't mean what you think it means," Ruby snapped. She turned back to the bar to shake her glass at the bartender, looking for a refill. "_Ruby_. _Ruby_ was the one who was bicurious. And curiosity, satisfied. That was all."

Snow grimaced. "I actually thought that about Red."

Ruby spun and stared at her. "What? Why? What part about the murdering my boyfriend read as straight but not narrow to you? That wasn't even a _concept_ back there."

Mary Margaret made a face. "Let's just let this go, okay? If you're not into that, then don't worry about it. But it would be nice if someone could take her out, and show her that there can be fun in relationships. Not just star-crossed self-sacrifice."

Ruby glanced over to where Belle was finishing her Long Island and Emma and Regina were coming to join her, looking slightly rumpled. "You're right," she said. "She deserves that."

"So do you."

x x x

Belle was pretty certain she was drunk. Actually, she was super, super drunk. Because she remembered being drunk before and she could identify the symptoms. Her tongue was thick and she kept tripping over any alveolar sounds. She felt light headed and a bit wobbly.

Ruby and Mary Margaret were coming back from the bar. Mary Margaret was looking slightly guilty. Ruby just looked exhausted. Belle moved to meet them. Her head spun and she almost tripped. Ruby caught her. Belle grinned up at her.

"Thank you." Then she reached out and took the cup of water from her and chugged it. "Thank you again."

Ruby laughed. "I'm going to have to head out," she said. "Moonrise is coming soon."

The words hit like a club to the gut. She leaned forward and caught Ruby's arms. "You're leaving me here with _them_?"

"Snow," Ruby turned to her. "You'll get her home, right? Don't leave her alone."

"Of course."

"I've got to go."

Belle hung on her arm. "Let me walk you out."

She saw Ruby shoot Mary Margaret a fierce glare, but she put an arm around Belle's shoulders and they headed for the door. Outside the air was cool and Belle felt a little less drunk, a little refreshed.

"Thank you for coming," Belle said, looking up at Ruby who was watching her with a bit of an odd expression on her face. It wasn't quite affectionate, or quite nervous, or quite pained, but maybe a bit of all three. It was close to moonrise, she guessed. "Even though you couldn't have fun."

"I had fun. I don't need to drink to have fun, or, you know, to smell things."

Belle giggled.

"You're _really_ drunk, aren't you?" Ruby looked worried. "Tell Snow to take you home, okay? No more drinking. I'm cutting you off."

"I'm _fine_." Belle leaned in and pressed her head against Ruby's shoulder. Ruby's hands tightened on her arms, and seemed to strain to not press too hard. "I wanted to tell you…" She nuzzled in deeper. "I can't howl back, but if you howl tonight, I'll hear you. You can howl to me."

Ruby was warm and smelt good, and Belle could feel her heart begin to quicken its beat, her breath coming shorter.

"Belle," her voice was strained. "I have to go. I really have to go."

Belle stepped away and nodded. "Thank you for being my friend."

Ruby cast her a weak grin. "I'll always be your friend. Always."

And then she fled.

Belle sighed and turned to go back inside.

x x x

When the moonlight hit her, Ruby's body bent, and shifted, and god, it felt good. The wolf rubbed its poor abused nose into the leafmould and then ran.

The running felt the same as always, stretching her legs, getting in tune with herself. But then the ruby-wolf found itself back on the outskirts of the forest, looking back into town. Ruby pulled it back, _no. No, you don't belong in town. You'll scare people_. The wolf whined. It wanted to find its mate. It panted. It shifted its tail to the side, lowered itself to its front elbows, and waved its rear end.

"Hello, wolf."

The ruby-wolf froze. She bared her teeth, she growled deeply. A shadowed figure stepped out into the clearing.

"I see you're having a hard time tonight."

The ruby-wolf tensed, readying to pounce, to bite and rend and tear. Ruby fought for control.

"Ready for it to be even harder?" The figure lifted his hand. Was that a _gun_?

He pulled the trigger and a needle shot from the muzzle. Ruby didn't wait, she leapt. The needle embedded itself in her skin as she snapped at the figure's throat, but found herself biting nothing. He was gone.

The needle stung, and Ruby felt dizzy. The wolf felt angry. It raked at the needle until it came out and fell into the leaves.

Ruby fainted.

The wolf threw its head back and howled.

x x x

Snow had politely waited until Belle opened the door and stepped inside the library, but Belle didn't need a babysitter. She was drunk. Lacey had been drunk a lot. She knew what to do. She kicked off her shoes and padded over to the sink. Water. That was the important thing.

She filled a tumbler and drank it down, then filled it again.

She brought it over to the window and opened it to get some more cool air on her face. She sank into her chair and drank half the glass.

It had been a good night, really. At least while Ruby was there. Being the fourth wheel in a three-way family argument was never really fun, and Belle had told Snow she was ready to go soon after. Snow had patted her on the shoulder and looked sympathetic in an entirely non-comforting way. But Snow didn't get her, couldn't get her. She had a true love who she was with. She knew he loved her and she loved him. It was like an open connection, streaming both ways, feeling safe and happy and linked to someone. Had she ever really known what it was like to be lonely?

Ruby understood. Belle stared out at the dark diner across the street, looking up over it, out towards the woods. Was she lonely tonight?

She heard a howl.

It was a long, lonesome howl that pulled her straight up to her feet. _Ruby_. And maybe she was still drunk, maybe she was confused and desperate and needy, but that was the saddest howl she had ever heard.

Without thinking Belle found herself moving quickly down the stairs and out the door. She was barefoot, and hardly noticed. She ran down the street, ran towards the woods. She found herself in the outskirts, leaves and twigs underfoot, pushing branches out of her face.

"Ruby!"

Was she all right? Belle looked up at the moon. Waxing gibbous, it seemed, not full yet at all. And yet…

In the shadows she saw a darker shadow, a moving shadow. "Ruby?" she whispered, not sure if she should panic. And then the thing changed – a human figure, thank god. It was Ruby, still dressed for clubbing. She stood from her crouch, wobbling slightly and stepped toward Belle. Belle bit her lip. There was something odd about the way she was moving. And it was moonlight. How had she been able to change back?

Ruby stumbled slightly and reached out, catching herself on Belle's arm, and Belle felt the touch of claws biting into her skin. Astonished and a little frightened, she looked into Ruby's eyes and saw the wolf there and not the girl. Big eyes, sharp teeth, strong hands, long claws. Belle's heart started to beat quickly, rising up into her throat. She'd read this story a thousand times, wolf in sheep's clothing, this world's version of little red riding hood. "The better to eat you with," she murmured, and Ruby's head turned slightly, a bemused expression crossing her face. "Ruby, come on. Ruby, wake up in there."

Wolf-ruby whined and ducked her head. She nuzzled against Belle's shoulder.

"Oh," Belle murmured. "Oh. Okay. You're not going to eat me all up, are you?" This strange Wolf-ruby was more like a puppy, affectionate, needy, not quite aware of its strength.

She reached up and stroked the back of Ruby's head. Ruby's chest rumbled in pleasure. Belle buried her fingers into her hair, or was it fur? It was almost hard to tell. And then Belle felt a long, slightly rough tongue licking her neck. Belle's fingers tightened in her hair.

"Ruby!" she gasped. And her hips bucked into the wolf's. She felt dizzy and hot and needy, and it felt _good_.

And she knew she was drunk and she knew this was a bad idea, and she also knew that there wasn't really a choice here. Go home alone? Leave Ruby alone? The excitement that had been rising in her all evening now boiled in her gut. She clenched her thighs together, and just wanted it, wanted more.

The wolf was mouthing her neck, licking and sucking, using its teeth to scrape across her skin. Belle gripped her shoulders tightly, pressing into her, her breath coming fast and short. She raked her nails down Ruby's back and felt it bristle, ripple under her, thick fur coming out lush and soft. Wolf-ruby growled and pushed, and Belle toppled. They fell in a heap into leaves and pine needles. Belle hooked her legs around Ruby's hips, grinding up into her, and Ruby leaned in, hot breath, long rough tongue, sharp teeth, and _bit_.

They struggled together on the forest floor. Belle wasn't sure what she was kissing or nipping most of the time, sometimes skin, sometimes fur. Claws shredded her clothes. Hands – paws – spread her legs, pinning her down. Ruby, wild haired and human, loomed over her, and then she licked her lips, tongue long and thin and glistening, teeth glinting in the moonlight.

Belle, dizzy and aching, and feeling hardly half-human herself, just gasped. She clawed the earth and tried to buck up toward her. "God, _Ruby_. Finish this!"

And Ruby smiled, and _did_.

x x x


	2. Chapter 2

Belle awoke to heat, a warm weight spreading over her chest, but her back pressed against an irregular surface, prickly, like pine needles and twigs and rocks. And yet she felt comfortable, or at least uninterested in moving. The warm weight was coated in soft fur and breathing. She reached up and stroked it gently.

Fuck. Moving _hurt_. Everything hurt, especially her head, and her _neck_. What had _happened_? Where _was_ she?

She didn't want to open her eyes. She felt that that would just make the headache worse. She couldn't _think_. But she was definitely outside. And the thing on her… gave a grumbly sort of growl. Wolf? Yeah. Probably a wolf. Probably _Ruby_ actually. Which was… all right. Better than _not_ Ruby, that was certain. But why? How had she gotten here? What had happened?

She started to panic. She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember the night before at all. She couldn't—

"Oh, _shit_."

Emma's voice.

The wolf woke up. It tensed, stepping on Belle and making her oof, and growled at Emma. Belle opened her eyes and wished she hadn't. Yep, she was totally naked, and there was a wolf, and Emma was standing well back with her gun in her hand, the muzzle trained on Ruby, looking wide-eyed and panicked.

"Ruby," Emma scolded. "Ruby, no. Don't. It's sunup. You can change back now."

Ruby was growling at her. Belle rolled up into a ball. "Emma," she murmured. "Put the gun down, okay? Put it away."

Emma gave a strangled breath of a sound. "You're alive. Good. Oh, thank god." Very slowly she moved the gun back, sliding it into her holster. Even more slowly she opened a bag hanging from her waist and started to draw out something red. "The moon set hours ago. Why is she still a wolf?"

Belle bit her lip. "I have no idea."

Emma carefully let the cloak fall close enough for Belle to reach. The ruby-wolf was watching them very suspiciously. "Put it on her, okay?"

The wolf was pressed firmly against Belle's side, protective, and Belle moved, feeling sticky and filthy and sore. Her muscles hurt, and she felt like she'd been dragged naked through a blackberry bush. But she didn't know _why. _ Her stomach swam. She took hold of the edge of the cloak and pulled it over the ruby-wolf's back. The wolf swiveled and tensed. With a ripple, it changed, and then it slumped.

Ruby – the human one – lay unconscious on the ground. Belle choked. If she was as marked up as Ruby was no wonder Emma had thought she was dead.

"Is she okay? What's wrong?" Belle touched her face, lifting her head, cupping her cheek. Ruby blinked groggily.

"Belle?" her voice was rough. And then her eyes widened. "Oh god," she said. "Oh god, _no_. What did I do to you?" She sat up with a lurch, looking like she was going to puke. She pulled the cloak tightly around her.

Belle reached up to the spot on her neck where Ruby's eyes had fallen. Her fingers came away bloody and she gaped at them. "I don't know," she said. "I don't remember anything that happened last night."

x x x

The first thing that Ruby noticed when she came to was the scent of blood.

_Peter_.

The image of his body, mauled and half-devoured, flashed on the backs of her eyelids and she had to face it, she had to know. She opened her eyes.

But the face she saw wasn't Peter's. Pale skin, a halo of mussed dark curls, blood drying black on her throat. _Belle_.

She wasn't dead. Thank _god_ she wasn't dead.

The second thing she smelled was sex.

_No. _What had she done?

"This is fucked up, you guys," Emma said. She offered Belle her long tweed jacket, which smelled suspiciously like Regina. Belle burrowed into it, pulling it closed over her legs and breasts, and Ruby felt washed in shame. She shook with it. She brought her hands to her face, but her fingernails were dark with Belle's blood and the scent on them was salt and come.

This hadn't been supposed to happen. She was in _control_ now. But not of heat. Not of this. It was like the first times back again, confusion, memory-loss, nothing but the evidence of her crimes, bloody and horrific, remaining in the morning.

Ruby swallowed. She lifted up her hands. "Take me in," she said.

"What?" Emma blinked at her.

"Take me the fuck in!" Ruby yelled. "You can see what I did, and tonight I'll try to do it again! I've lost control of the wolf."

Belle was looking at her, eyes wide and blue and crumpled a little inside. "I don't remember," she said.

But Ruby knew betrayal when she saw it. And she couldn't claim it wasn't earned.

Emma brought them both to the station, calling the hospital to send someone to patch them up. Ruby went and sat in the cell.

Emma looked at her. "I haven't—"

"_Arrest_ me." Ruby shook her head. "I _attacked_ her."

Emma sagged, but nodded slowly. She shut the cell and locked it.

"What are you—" Belle protested. "You can't just lock her up."

Ruby's eyes felt wet. Why didn't everyone just realize that she was a monster? Why did they keep on thinking the contrary? There was no other option this time. She had attacked her closest friend. She deserved to die.

x x x

"Don't touch me!" Belle yelled, jerking away from Whale, who was trying to examine the scratches on her thighs. Ruby clung to the bars of the cell, watching. The bars creaked slightly under her grip, and Emma glanced over at her, suddenly worried. She'd been the responsible one so far, reminding everyone that she was the criminal here, but how much control had that required? Was she losing it?

"Whale!" Emma snapped. "Listen to the girl."

Whale straightened and wrinkled his nose. "I can't tell if the wolf raped her if she won't let me conduct my examination."

Ruby let out a low, guilty moan.

Emma felt sick. She hadn't wanted to contemplate that, that it had been more than drunken wrestling with a wild wolf. Ruby wasn't someone who would… but the wolf might. Who knew what the wolf wanted?

Belle slapped Whale across the face. "Don't speak about her like that!"

Whale narrowed his eyes. "Anyone can see that you were assaulted. Your skittishness just makes it more likely that it was sexual in nature."

Ruby pressed her hands to her face. "Belle," she murmured. "Please don't defend me. Don't defend the wolf."

Belle staggered up from her chair and over to the bars. She was looking at Ruby, a little desperate, hurt and helpless and needy, and Emma wanted to _fix_ this. They had been charming last night, intimate and comfortable, and now it was ruined.

"I don't know what happened," said Belle, "I don't remember. All I want is to go home and take a shower and like six aspirin. But whatever happened, I don't blame you for what your wolf did."

She reached out, but Ruby jerked back and fell onto the bed. "Stop. Stop. I don't deserve your kindness."

Belle spun to face Emma. "God! Why do you all think she just hurt me? Look at her! Why aren't you making sure I didn't hurt her?"

Emma's eyes flicked over Ruby, over her torn and bloody lip and the fingertip bruises on her arms and the nailmarks peeking out of Graham's old shirt that had still been lying around the sheriff's station. Werewolves healed fast, and she wasn't as badly off as Belle, but the marks weren't happy playful sex marks. There was no way of knowing if they were consensual ones or if Belle had clawed and bit and scratched to try to fight her off.

Whale scoffed. "Because she's a _wolf_."

Belle narrowed her eyes. "Keep him away from me."

_Fuck_. Whale was only escalating things. Why did the hospital have to send _him_? "I think," Emma said. "I think I need to think about this. I just… Belle, can you do a self-report of your injuries and anything else that seems to be relevant? Just give it to me as soon as you can. I need to go over the statements. Whale, your services are no longer necessary. You disinfected the big bite. The rest of it is just basic first aid."

Whale rolled his eyes. "You're a terrible sheriff," he said. "Haven't you learned your lesson about trying to rehabilitate monsters yet? The mayor and the wolf, it's like you collect them." He strode out.

"_Hypocrite," _Emma hissed. Then she looked to Ruby. "If you take off the cloak are you going to go wolf again?"

Ruby shook her head. She was in control again. The moonlight was long past.

"Okay, good. Then you can get a shower and do the same self-report, okay? I'm going to sort this out."

Emma sighed as Belle left and Ruby took the proffered towel_._ She left Ruby showering and went to go back over the statement tapes.

"Um, well," Belle's voice came back over the speaker. "I don't really remember anything. I mean I feel hungover, like _really_ hungover, so I must have gone out last night."

Emma's own voice cut in, surprised and totally not following procedure. "You don't remember going out last night?"

"You were there?"

"I… yeah. I was there. But, um, just tell me what's the last thing you remember?"

"Mmm," Belle paused, and Emma remembered the look on her face, the sort of sick look. "I just hate this. I hate not remembering things. It was so awful and disorienting when I had amnesia, and then all the fake memories turned me into a different person. I don't want to make assumptions about what happened, because that will change the way I act towards… toward her, and what if I'm wrong?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember going to the diner in the morning, and Ruby was… she was acting strangely. But she said she would come out with us that night. And I remember working in the library, and I think I remember getting ready to go out, but it's not… not quite right. It's a bit fuzzy."

"But not the Rabbit Hole? Not what you drank?"

"No."

"Not the dancing?"

"Was there dancing?" She sounded pleased and a little wistful.

Emma sighed and shut the tape off. Blackout drunk? Would two Long Islands do that? It could. Or maybe she had hit her head.

Then she started to notice the noises coming from outside. Shouts and arguing. Emma got up and went to the door. As she reached it there was a loud banging. It burst open and in stumbled Mary Margaret and Eugenia Lucas. Granny was wielding a crossbow and turned it back on the group outside the door. "Stay out!" she shouted, and Mary Margaret slammed the door and started pushing Emma's desk in front of it.

"What's going on?" Snow begged. "They're saying Ruby attacked someone."

Granny lowered her crossbow and fixed Emma with a sharp look. "Give it to us straight."

Emma slumped into her chair. "God, there isn't anything straight."

Snow smacked her shoulder. "Is anyone dead?"

"What? No."

Snow let out a breath. "Thank god."

"She could have been." Ruby, wrapped in a towel, emerged from the bathroom and stood there, barefoot, hair dripping, the marks on her body utterly visible, though fading quickly_._ "I lost control of the wolf. I don't remember what happened last night. It was like I wasn't even conscious."

"_She?_" asked Snow.

"Belle," Granny said flatly.

Emma nodded. "Someone noticed the library door left open this morning and I went out looking for her."

Ruby's eyes seemed to turn hollow. "I could have killed her."

"You didn't," Snow said.

"But you don't know what I _did_ do." Ruby's face contorted into savagery. "Granny knows. She knew all along, and she gave me _Vix_ to fix it."

"And were you using it?" Granny snapped back.

"Not while I was a wolf!"

"Did you bring her into the forest with you?"

"What? Of course not! I told Snow to take her home!"

"I did!" Snow assured her. "I made sure she got inside. She must have gone out again after I left, but I thought she was good for the night."

Ruby was crying now. "Why do people even let me pretend to live? Why don't you just kill me?"

"That's what I was wondering."

Everyone turned. Rumpelstiltzken stood in the room, eyes narrowed, focusing hard on Ruby and Emma. "You hurt, you violated, _my _property, wolf. And I will see you hanged for this."

"She's not _yours_." It came out backed by a low growl.

"You think because you marked her, she's yours now?"

"She's not anyone's! Let her choose what she wants on her own!"

"Like _you_ did?"

"Gold," Emma snapped, seeing Ruby's eyes change and teeth elongate. "I'm handling this investigation. We will figure this out. And we will punish those who must be punished in the ways determined by the law."

Gold's eyes narrowed. "I certainly hope you do. I also hope you're not frightened that you have a heat-drunk werewolf restrained by nothing but a towel. You know heat makes them into mad savages."

"It does _not_," Granny snapped.

Gold scoffed. "I think we know better than that now, madam." He pulled a book out of his jacket and dropped it on the table. "I think that this tome might be of assistance. A respected authority wrote it. Better than the biased advice you'll get from her." He tipped his hat at Granny and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Emma stared at the book. _Lycanthropy: A Guide to the Creatures Cursed by the Moon_ read the title. "God," Emma muttered. "I'm beginning to hate any books that Gold shows up with."

x x x

Belle stood in the shower and let the hot water take the soreness from her muscles and clean the blood from her wounds. She hated this, hated not remembering. Shouldn't she remember somewhere? Shouldn't she feel differently towards Ruby if she had hurt her? Some secret, dark, uncomfortable interior knowledge should push her away, or at least make her afraid of reaching out and touching her. But Ruby's drowning in self-hatred only made her afraid _for_ her, not of her.

And what if Ruby had done what she was accused of? Ruby had lost control of the wolf. And the wolf did what it wanted to do, and it hadn't killed her. It had nipped and scratched and bitten, but Belle had clawed and bit right back – or that was what the marks said.

Why had Emma had to find them? It had just made everything crazy. Belle had woken up and the wolf had woken up, and Ruby would have come around eventually, and then they could have talked about it, without Emma deciding that there had been a crime there, and that she needed to arrest Ruby. But now it was all 'assault' and a police matter, and Ruby was hiding in a cell looking like an abused puppy.

And no one listened to Belle, who always thought the best of everyone. But this was simple logic. Why leap to accuse someone when you weren't certain there had even been a crime?

Belle reached up and touched the worst bite, it was deep and had bled profusely, and Whale had cleaned it out and disinfected it. It was still slightly raised and sore. That was the only real injury. Besides that, the hangover, and the surface scratches, now that she was clean and warm, she felt better than Lacey had after spending a night with Rumpel. Whatever they had done, they hadn't done _that_.

But how exactly could she explain that part to Emma?

x x x

Emma stalked into Regina's office, without knocking, and collapsed into the chair in front of her desk.

Regina raised an eyebrow. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Don't tell me you don't know."

Regina rolled her eyes. "The bestiality contretemps in the woods last night, you mean."

Emma cupped her face with her hand. "_Bestiality?_"

"A woman had a sexual encounter with a wolf. What would you call it?"

"A problem!"

Regina laughed archly. "True enough."

"But how am I supposed to do this? Neither of them remember a goddamn thing, and it wasn't like they weren't looking like they were going to hook up all night. If it was just rough sex and too much liquor this is going to the most embarrassing anecdote either of them will ever have."

"Actually," Regina drawled. "If it was just rough sex and too much liquor, there was still a crime committed."

"Huh?"

Regina pulled a huge tome out from under her desk and flipped it open to a place that had been sticky-noted. "Here. Felonious Sexual Misconduct."

Emma leaned over and read the marked text. "To lie with a beast as with a man is a crime worthy of being held in the stocks in the center of town and stoned for two days." Emma looked up. "Jesus! When was this thing written?"

"Recall where we'll all from."

Emma grimaced. "I'm so fucking glad I didn't have to grow up there."

"You're welcome."

"But if Ruby counts as a wolf, there are a lot more people in this town who are in trouble from this law."

"Ruby doesn't _count_ as a wolf, but you found her as a wolf, didn't you? So she was a wolf that night."

Emma swallowed. "I guess so. But it's like, a magical beast, or something."

Regina snorted. "In King George's kingdom, anyone mating with a magical beast would be beheaded. Of course, he also beheaded anyone accused to be a werewolf, so he has them coming and going there."

"Anyone _accused_? Not proven?"

"Too dangerous to waste time proving things."

"Well, I'm _not_ doing that! That's not how this world works! It's innocent until proven guilty and evidence, evidence, evidence!"

"Tell that to the girl you have locked up in your office."

"Protective custody," Emma said, straightening. "Have you seen the mob forming out there?"

"The people of this town are not exactly familiar with the rule of law."

"Well I am. And that means I need to know what really happened. There are too many things wrong with last night. It wasn't a full moon, but Ruby changed. Both of them blacked out, but Ruby wasn't drinking at all last night. And she didn't change back when the moon set. And when Belle put the cloak on her, she was unconscious. The wolf was there, but Ruby wasn't, and the wolf still didn't go on a murdering rampage. And the most suspicious thing of all: Mr. Gold decided to be helpful by bringing me a book about werewolves."

"Yes," Regina commented. "That _is_ suspicious."

x x x

Transcript of the Interview with Eugenia Lucas

GRANNY: I was wondering when you would get around to me.

SHERIFF: I, um, yes. I thought you would know—

GRANNY: Know whether what Gold said was true, right?

SHERIFF: uh, yes.

GRANNY: Here's the lowdown, sheriff, and you had better listen to me, because I am the only werewolf source you have. Ruby's a baby still and doesn't know hardly anything. But _I_ have been around the block enough to know.

SHERIFF: So, um, is it true?

GRANNY: That Ruby's in heat? Yes.

SHERIFF: What… what does that even _mean_?

GRANNY: The one important thing that it _doesn't_ mean is that she gets savager and wilder. She gets horny. Her wolf gets worked up. She gets two more days of wolfstime, but the wolf shape is more controllable – not the _wolf_ – just the shape. It's practical. Since the point is to get knocked up, if you've got a wolf on you, you should be a wolf, if you've got a human, you should be a human.

SHERIFF: Oh, um, that makes sense. Except, of course, that, er, ladies…

GRANNY: Sheriff, it's like you didn't grow up in this world.

SHERIFF: Um, so, lesbian wolves…

GRANNY: Read National Geographic sometimes.

SHERIFF: Okay. Um, just, why now? Why did she go into heat _this_ month, and not before?

GRANNY: You can't guess? … No? You don't get all het up to mate unless there's someone you want to mate with.

x x x

"I, um, brought you lunch."

Ruby didn't look up, just burrowed more deeply into her cloak. She rubbed her wrist over her eyes.

"_Ruby_."

"Not hungry."

"Your grandmother says you should eat."

Ruby looked up. Her eyes were red, and Emma was almost surprised that she didn't have mascara smeared everywhere, but, of course, she wasn't wearing any. "You talked to Granny?"

Emma shoved the bag through the bars. Ruby took it. "I did. She said some… interesting things."

"She tried to convince you I'm not a monster." Ruby said flatly and opened the bag, then tore into the pulled pork sandwich.

"I don't need convincing on that. To be honest, I'm not even sure if you've committed a crime."

"_What?_ You saw her! She looked like she'd been—"

"Fucked in the bushes?"

"By a wolf!"

Emma frowned. "Do you think you were a wolf the whole time?"

"What? It was wolfstime and I didn't have my cloak."

"But, um, it's special mating wolfstime. And, since, um, you don't always mate with wolves, you're able to bang someone in whatever form you want."

Ruby looked a little horrified. "Really?"

"But you're not supposed to black out like that. Do you remember anything?"

"I remember…" Ruby looked down. She remembered Belle hugging her and promising to hear her howls. She remembered hugging her back, and wanting her to be happy, wanting to do whatever it took to keep her from being lonely. She remembered running, then hovering on the outskirts of town, and wanting. "I remember a clearing at the edge of the forest. I was there. I wanted to go into the town and find… someone to mate with. And then, well, then the wolf must have taken over, because I don't really remember anything else until…"

But that wasn't entirely true. Usually her wolf memories were integrated into her regular memories, they were combined and intense – confusing, but comprehensible. But this time she only had wolf memories. And these ones were difficult to access and even more difficult to parse. The scents and heat and sounds varied wildly. The vision was off and wrong, flipping between the regular motion oriented black and white to something swirling and Technicolor and too dizzying to comprehend.

"I don't _know_," Ruby said softly. "But I think I might have been changing shape – wolf eyes, human eyes, wolf nose, human nose." She could smell her though, still smell her sweat and heat and liquid arousal. She swallowed. But wolf brains couldn't do anything with words. If she had said anything, yes, or no, she couldn't tell. One image of Belle's eyes stuck with her, staring her down, utterly intent. She remembered fingers clawing at her neck and back, burrowing in thick fur. Was she responding? Or trying to fight her off? Ruby couldn't tell.

"Can we pretend that you were human-shaped the whole time?" Emma asked. "Because I really, really don't want to have to talk about bestiality."

Ruby's jaw dropped. "That's… offensive!"

"I _know_. But apparently there are laws and shit that say humans who turn into animals are legally animals while they are animals, but humans while they are humans. And that's because Regina is actually pretty liberal. Most laws say that humans who turn into animals are animals all the time, so even if you banged her not at wolfstime, it would still be a criminal act."

Ruby felt sick. "Just because I'm not human…"

"It means that _she_ would have committed a criminal act, because the laws from your country are like fucking Leviticus, except with more imagination."

What? They would blame _her? _"You can't punish her for my taking her against her will."

"Was it against her will?"

"Of _course_ it was!"

Emma gave her a hard look. "Was it against yours?"

Ruby gaped at her. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Emma shrugged and sat down outside the cell, opening her own lunch. "So, my mom talked to me today. She said she had a convo with you at the Rabbit's Hole about how you weren't interested in Belle because you were both straight. So if you're straight, not into girls, not into _Belle_, then why would you molest her?"

Oh god. She didn't want to talk about this. Snow was such a busybody. "We don't need to know why, just whether I did or didn't."

"I don't agree with that. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, and I read enough mystery novels to have an affection for motive and opportunity. And you don't seem to have a motive here."

Ruby looked away. "The wolf likes her." That was true enough. It had made her uncomfortable just how much the wolf sat up and begged when she was around. But it wasn't like her human hadn't wanted to turn somersaults to make her smile. Her wolf's interest seemed much less innocent now.

Emma snorted. "Lesbian wolves."

Ruby glared.

"Lesbian wolves who are into _humans_."

That was just sarcastic.

"She's my friend! I like her! I like the way she smells, and I'm sad when she's lonely and happy when I can make her smile. What the hell is wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Emma said flatly. "There's also nothing wrong with it if you want to take her on dates and kiss her goodnight and grope her butt and sleep in her bed."

Ruby stared at her and then drooped. _Fuck_. "You're not from here. That's not how it _works_. It doesn't matter what you want. You can want to kiss girls, want to curl up next to them, want them to stay forever, and they _won't_. They'll find their true love, their _male_ true love, and leave you the fuck behind."

"Mmm, so my mom was right."

Ruby stiffened. "What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You were totally into her when you guys were teenagers."

Ruby lunged at the bars and slammed against them, making them shake. That was _private_. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

Emma, unimpressed, took another bite of her lunch. "What? _I_ don't care. I know a beautiful woman when I see one, and clearly I take after my dad, but I can pretend that it's a genetic compliment."

"It wasn't attraction." _Not just attraction._ "She was my best friend and I… I loved her. It was kind of a shitty needy time in my life."

"And you're saying that if she ever gave you a look and started stripping down slowly you wouldn't have drooled your face off?"

Ruby reached through the bars and smacked her. "Shut up. That's your mom."

Emma laughed. "Unrequited girl-crushes suck. But that's _life_. It's a sucky, miserable, unpleasant part of life, but you deal with it. And then you get over it. And then you get another one. And sometimes, _sometimes_, the girl likes you back. You're not the only person in the world who's ever liked a girl. You're not even the only _girl_ in the world who's ever liked a girl."

"That's not true when your world is the size of Storybrooke." Ruby had known that even before Red returned. She took what she could get, but she had longed for a wider world, where the girls you slept with might actually want to date you rather than just kick you out of bed right after, where the boys in town wouldn't make it a rite of passage to get with you because one douchebag said you were easy, and spread the rumor until everyone said you were easy, even your own grandmother, until no one would even think of asking you out for anything but a hookup. There was a _difference_, between liking sex and being easy. She did it because _she_ wanted it, not because she didn't know how to say no. If she were a guy, she would have been a stud, but because she was a girl she was a slut. And she fucking _hated_ Storybrooke.

"Hey, savior here. Storybrooke is changing, and the moment I walked into town, you _weren't_ alone. Okay?"

"_You_? You're saying that you like girls."

"I _love_ girls," Emma said and grinned. "I mean, I tend to like the ones who are awful and crazy and fucked up, but I blame that on my time in the clink. They were the bosses. You had to love them, and then they wouldn't wreck you. You, at least, have good taste in women."

Ruby sighed and dropped back onto the bed. "It doesn't _matter_. Why do I have to admit that I like her, when it can never go anywhere, especially now?"

"Sometimes it's healthy to just say the words."

"It just makes me _pathetic_. I'm the fucked up girl that couldn't get _over_ herself and savaged the boy she liked, and now I've savaged the girl I liked, and once is awful, but twice is a habit. At least if it was just the monster going mad inside of me I could retain some self-respect when you hang me, but I just hurt the people I care about. It's _sad_."

"We're not going to hang you."

Ruby turned and glared at her. "You won't have a choice."

x x x


	3. Chapter 3

Belle dressed and tidied and took some aspirin and ate some lunch and wrote down what she could think of about her injuries, and tried to frame the idea that if there had been sex, it hadn't… it hadn't _hurt_. It might not have even been penetrative sex. She tore up a few versions, and then went for the clinical vocabulary.

Finally, she stepped out of the door. She grimaced. There was a bad smell in the street. People were gathered outside the sheriff's station. Belle hesitated, not really wanting to force her way through the crowd. Then she overheard someone speaking.

"I don't even know if I believe it. Seems like she's crying wolf to me. We all know that girl has a taste for monsters. Spreading for Gold, spreading for the Big Bad Wolf, what's the difference? They're both beasts."

Belle froze and stumbled sideways, into the door of Granny's. She ducked inside and saw all the eyes on her, some sympathetic, most curious, some revolted. Everyone knew. _Everyone. _ Granny slammed a cutting board down on the counter and gave her a glare.

"Get back here, girl. I need to talk to you."

Not sure whether she was more uncomfortable with the eyes in the diner or Granny in the kitchen, Belle obeyed, hurrying behind the counter and ducking into the kitchen. Granny followed her in. Her fierce, accusing affect dropped. "How are you doing, pet?"

Belle sagged in relief. "I don't know. I don't know how any of this happened. I don't…" she pressed her hands against her eyes. Granny put her arm around her shoulders and walked her to a chair. She sat her down.

"You're not hurt?"

"_No_. She didn't hurt me. Not more than scratches. I'm fine. But I don't know what _happened_. And I'm… I'm _angry_ about that."

Granny stepped back slightly and gave her a curious look. "Angry?"

"I want to _know_. Not knowing is like… it's like being locked up again, being helpless. And maybe it was awful, and maybe it wasn't, but I don't _know_. I _can't_ know." _But everyone else thought they knew what had happened, as if they had the right to make the world match their prejudices. As if they had the right to tell her how to think, how she would have acted._

"Has the sheriff checked to see if you were drugged?"

Belle blinked at her, wiping away the few tears of anger that had welled up. "What?"

Granny made a suspicious face. "See, it could have been the drink. But you may be a lightweight, and yet two Long Islands spread out over a whole night won't _usually_ trigger a blackout. And I did spend twenty-eight years running after a loose post-teenager. I read up hard on Roofies and GHB. You drink something with a drug in it, and fifteen minutes in you're smashed, and the next morning you don't remember anything. Sound familiar?"

"I could have been _drugged_." Belle's hands balled into fists. Then she frowned. "But _why_? What for?"

"So you don't think it was my granddaughter?"

Belle gave her a puzzled look. "Why would _she_ do it?"

"So she could have sex with you?"

Belle flinched at her words and their matter-of-fact tone. _What? That didn't make any sense_. "Because the wolf is going to make long term plans like that," she scoffed. "And that assumes that it _picked_ me. I was drunk and confused and went into the woods. I was convenient."

Granny gave her a long look. "That's what you think? That the wolf would have gone after anyone?"

Belle tensed. "What other explanation is there? Why on earth would it target me in particular?"

"I can't say," Granny said flatly. "But I know that the wolf and the human are not really two separate people. The human thinks and the wolf feels. Sometimes the feeling is a bit more honest than the thinking."

Belle reached up and touched the bitemark on her neck. It was tender and well covered by her blouse. "I don't…" _understand_? No. She understood. She just didn't believe it. She shook her head. "I need to go report to Emma. And I should tell her about the drugs idea."

"Get on with you then," Granny said. "And, if you can, tell my wild grandchild one thing."

Belle turned back to her, hesitant, not wanting to be told anything more about Ruby, not until she could sort this last bit of information out. "What?"

"Wolves are rough on the people they care for, but there's a difference between a dead girl and a live one, and only one of them is worth grieving over."

x x x

Regina walked into the pawnshop and waited for Gold to look at her.

"To what do I own the pleasure?" he drawled slowly.

"Would you believe I wanted to see how you were doing?" Regina asked. "You _must_ be rather upset."

"About _what_?" Rumpel inquired.

"About your ex fucking a werewolf."

Rumpel's eyes narrowed. "You seem to believe she chose to."

"You think she didn't? Our darling sheriff, in her grand plans of rehabilitation, invited me along to a little party for your former girlfriend. She spent nearly the whole time half snuggled up to her new monster. Even if it wasn't her idea, I really doubt she protested."

"I think you're assuming I _want_ her back."

Regina cocked her head and smiled slightly. "You _don't_?"

"Not if it's on her terms." Rumpel's eyes narrowed. "I want her to beg me to take her back, beg me to treat her like she _deserves_."

"And the wolf?"

"The wolf convinced her to leave me. I can't say I have warm feelings towards it. But it's not my business to run this town. I can only hope your pet sheriff isn't too squeamish to seek justice."

x x x

Emma stood on the steps of the sheriff's office and cursed Whale and his big fucking mouth. She shouldn't have let him in the door.

"We heard the wolf savaged someone again," said concerned citizen number one.

"This town is frightening enough as it is, we don't need monsters roaming the streets at night and hunting our children!"

"It's bad enough with the evil queen running free!"

"We'll all be murdered in our beds!"

"I say we kill the beast!"

"People!" Emma yelled. "Shut up! This isn't the goddamn enchanted forest! We do not lynch people anymore!"

"It isn't a _person_. It's a monster."

"Sheriff!" Belle strode through the crowd, pushing people aside. "I see you are having trouble here." She climbed the steps and turned to face the crowd. "You seem to be worried about this rumor that Ruby has lost control of her wolf," she questioned the crowd. "As the so-called victim of this crime, I can assure you that the situation has been greatly exaggerated!"

The crowd went silent, and then one man spat. "Just because you liked it doesn't mean she's not a beast."

Belle's hands tightened into fists.

"Hey!" yelled Emma. "You want to repeat that?"

The man glared at her. "Why not? She's Gold's girl. She's got a taste for evil."

"And you've got a taste for pain!" Emma snapped and lunged toward him. Belle grabbed her shoulder and hauled her back.

"Don't," she hissed. "I can take it. I've heard it before." She pushed Emma behind her. "Look at me!" she shouted. "Do I look like a corpse? Do I look like I've been horrifically injured? If there is a crime here, it's the sheriff's business and _mine_. It's _none_ of yours. So go _home_. If you're so worried about evil, if you want to hunt monsters, go look in the damn mirror!"

She spun and stomped into the sheriff's office. Emma groaned and glared at the crowd. "You heard her! Go home!" Then she followed.

Ruby was huddled on the bed in the cell. She looked up when Belle entered. "You were defending me again."

Belle glared at her. "I hate it when you wallow in self-pity. It's fucking annoying."

Ruby looked shocked.

Belle turned to Emma. "And you, I have my report, but I'm _angry_ with you_._ Why did you have to _arrest_ her? This is a mess! The whole town knows. We needed to sort this out, and now it's become a circus. Someone _drugged_ me and it wasn't _Ruby_."

Emma blinked at her. "What? I… look, I heard you were missing and then I found your bloody insensate body in the woods with a wolf on top of it. Please excuse me for jumping to conclusions. But what the hell, why do you think you were _drugged_?"

And then, on second thought, it made sense.

"Drugged?" Ruby pressed up against the bars. "Oh, _shit_. Emma, when your mom and Belle and I were all on the dance floor, did you and Regina stay at the table the whole time?"

Emma winced. "Well, no. We stepped outside so we wouldn't have to yell in public."

Belle frowned. "This is a Lacey thing, isn't it? Like… don't finish unattended drinks?"

"Yeah." Ruby shook her head. "You got really wobbly after that. I should have _noticed_. I should have—"

"Rubes," Emma cut in. "You told my mom to take her home. You did what you were supposed to do. I'm thinking if you had decided to take her home, we wouldn't have had much of a different story today."

"Except everyone would have been sure I drugged her," Ruby added. "That's the predator M.O. right? Give a girl a drugged drink, look concerned when she starts getting dizzy, offer to take her home, do whatever shit you want to her, then fuck off when she passes out. Only I would have gotten caught. Someone wanted me to get caught."

Belle turned to her and stepped toward the bars. "Why did you change last night? It wasn't a full moon. The real one's not until tomorrow. If someone was trying to frame you, they would have had to know you would change. If you had stayed human, you wouldn't have touched me. But you didn't. Why'd you change early?"

Ruby looked at her and started to turn red. "I, um. I…"

Emma rolled her eyes. "She's in heat."

Belle's lips parted in astonishment.

Ruby curled into herself in humiliation. "I just, oh god, you know. It's a—"

"Biological imperative?" Belle asked. She bit her lip hesitantly. "I suppose that supports the sex hypothesis."

"It's not a hypothesis," Ruby mumbled.

Belle moved toward her and grabbed a bar of the cell. "What? You remember? You know what happened?"

Ruby winced. "I, not exactly, the wolf remembers, but the memories are kind of a mess. I think I was shifting a lot that night and my eyes and ears—"

"And tongue."

Ruby froze. Emma froze.

"You– _you_ remember?"

Belle turned pink. "I, no, not anything important. I just had a flash."

"Oh god," muttered Ruby. "Not a hypothesis."

"But…" Belle frowned. "If it was a biological imperative, then why was it _me_? It's not like I could be of any kind of use in, um…"

"Knocking Ruby up?" Emma grinned at them.

Both of them were entirely red now, and Emma really wanted to give someone a high-five.

"That's… not possible, right? I mean, it isn't some sort of secret werewolf power that no one knows about, is it?" Belle sounded somewhere between horrified and panicky.

"_No_!" Ruby yelped. "Oh, god. I _hope_ not." She looked down at herself. "I need to talk to Granny. Would she even know?"

"Hey! Hey!" Emma protested. "Calm down. She totally didn't mention anything like that when she we talked before. She was more into the 'lesbian wolves in National Geographic' stuff. You know, the world isn't all about biological imperatives."

"Lesbian wolves?" Belle frowned. She looked like she was rooting through Lacey's memories and coming up empty.

"Um, but we could check the book that Rumpel brought over."

"There's a book?" Belle perked up and looked around.

Ruby growled. "It's got to be anti-werewolf propaganda."

"I _know_ about careful reading and keeping the author's prejudices in mind. It might still have useful information."

Emma snagged the book off the desk and tossed it to Belle. "If you want it, go for it."

Ruby gripped the bars until they creaked, still growling slightly.

Belle glared at her. "Shush," she said. "I think you need to know this stuff just as much as I do. I will check everything with your grandmother, but knowledge is _control_. And that's what I lack right now, and I _hate_ it.

"I don't know what I did last night. I don't remember leaving my house. I don't know what I said to you. I don't know what I drank or if I danced or if I had a good time or a terrible time, and that's before I apparently stumbled out into the woods and had sexwith a _wolf_. I don't even know if I wanted you, or if you wanted me, or if I was just convenient, and I don't know whether knowing would make a difference, but I want to _know_, and I_ can't_."

Ruby had stopped growling and instead was leaning against the bars, watching her, her face soft. Belle rubbed the back of her fist across her eyes.

"We talked about howling," Ruby said softly. "You asked if I howled because I was lonely, and I said yes. I howl to call out to other wolves, and there aren't any. I howl anyway. You said… you said that if I howled that night, you'd hear me."

They both stood still, facing each other but not quite making eye contact. Emma sighed. This was a disaster. And she was going to have to spend the night with her gun on the steps to make sure they didn't get up a lynch mob.

"Belle, hey, before you go, can I get a sample to test for drugs?"

"Can you test for magic too?" Ruby asked softly.

Emma raised her eyebrows. Her main test for magic option was to bring it to Regina, and the thought of bringing Regina a urine sample was a little more hilarious than she could deal with.

"I don't think you'll find that," Belle said.

Ruby frowned. "Why not? Do you really not think that _he_ would do something like this?"

Belle stiffened. "I know exactly what he would and wouldn't do. But I also know that if someone wanted to set you up for this, they wouldn't have used magic because _you_ wouldn't have used magic."

"Guys!" Emma stopped this before Ruby got breath to get angry. "I will check everything."

"In fact," Belle said, "make sure you check her too."

"I lost control; I wasn't drugged."

Belle stalked up to the cell, reached through the bars and grabbed Ruby by the collar. "Stop being purposely obtuse!" She shook her, jerking her against the bars. Ruby gaped at her. "You have _no _proof of that. You don't _know_ anything."

"It doesn't _matter_. I have been cocky and stupid and I ended up hurting _you_. I can't just say it was an accident, say it was someone else's fault. It was me, pinning you to the dirt and scratching you with my claws and sinking my teeth into your neck until the wound ran slick with blood. I can still _taste _it. It's not forgivable. I can't forgive myself for this."

Belle shoved her, sending her stumbling into the back of the cell. "God, I _hate_ you," she hissed, then grabbed Emma and stormed out.

x x x

Evidence business sorted, Emma peeked her head back into the main office. Ruby was curled up on the bed again, the cloak spread over her like a blanket. She looked thoroughly miserable.

"You okay?" Emma asked softly.

"No," Ruby muttered.

"You want to talk about it?"

"No." Ruby put the hood over her head.

x x x

Belle couldn't handle this. She was angry and upset and stressed out. She had dealt with the goddamn proto-mob for the moment, though a small group was still whispering outside of the sheriff's office. But she could _not_ fight the lynch-mob inside Ruby's own head, and it made her sick. They had been through this before. Ruby had _wanted_ to die, and she was too stubborn to listen to anyone who thought she was worth it. And Belle felt like a hypocrite telling her now. She didn't remember what had happened, so she didn't _know_ if she had been the victim or a willing participant. Maybe she _did_ deserve it this time.

Ruby felt responsible for the wolf's actions, but she wouldn't take responsibility for the wolf's feelings, and Belle wanted to _hurt_ her. Her grandmother had suggested that the wolf wanting her was no different from Ruby wanting her, but the only way she could express that was through guilt.

And what if it was only guilt? What if the wolf just did what it did because she was there, and Ruby was so horrified by this because she was her friend? And Belle should have felt worried and sad about that idea, but she just felt angry and twitchy and desperate.

When Granny had suggested that Ruby, not just the wolf, might want her, Belle hadn't been able to believe it. Ruby was… _Ruby_. Impossibly beautiful, easily confident, charming and kind, and such a fucking mess. And Belle was not going to end this helpless and chained up in the goddamned library.

She made tea, climbed into bed, and opened the werewolf book. She skimmed the introduction, the author had lived with a pack for a few years, it seemed. That was a reasonable degree of credibility for an outside observer. She scanned the table of contents and skipped straight to the chapter on heats. It seemed the most relevant.

_The werewolf heat or rut is like those of many beasts and marked by an increase in violence and savagery, particularly toward its chosen mate. Werewolves take sexual pleasure in pain and in dominance over their partners. Heats appear during the lunar cycle for the first time when a werewolf has chosen a partner and every six to eight months thereafter. This partner is chosen for mysterious reasons that seem inexplicable to the scientific mind. In our pack, the most powerful and dominant wolf chose a sturdy fishwife for his mate. The runt female chose a spindly young wolf. The partner is rarely a fellow werewolf, but if so, the fight for dominance can be bloody and violent. If of a different kind, the werewolf's natural dominance leaves their chosen mate with little choice but to submit. The heat is an overwhelming episode, and the werewolf will approach their chosen partner as a hunter approaches prey, force themselves upon it, and mate with it until submission is won._

Belle squirmed slightly in her bed. That one flash of memory, Ruby over her, pinning her down, sharp teeth and long tongue and biting claws. She hadn't known whether she had wanted it or not, but from the way the arousal slid through her, she wanted it now. She curled over and dragged her fingernails across her arms and saw blood well up under them. She panted. Her face flushed and she could smell… she could smell Ruby, from when she had come into her room a week or so before and picked up the book off her bedside table. "Whatcha reading? _Shiver_…" Belle had snatched it out of her hands and told her it was nothing. Ruby did not need to know that she read werewolf romances. Even the trace of her smelled good, made her gut twitch and thighs tense. Her hand slid between her legs, guiltily. It felt a little impolite to think about a real person while touching herself.

Her eyes fell back onto the page.

_It is during heat that the werewolf bite is most potent, as a chosen mate must become part of the pack to bear or sire children for the werewolves._

Belle froze, the arousal shocked out of her like she had been doused with a bucket of cold water. She could smell Ruby from weeks ago. She could hear the crickets outside like a siren. She slid out of the bed and went to the window. It was dark, no moon.

And then it rose.

She couldn't see it, but she felt it, she felt it in her gut and in the tightening of her breasts and in the throb between her legs, and she doubled over. Oh god, was this heat? Had Ruby passed it on to her? She could smell Ruby, and she _needed_ her. She ran.

Carelessly in her pajamas she threw herself down the stairs and out the door, staggering down the street to the sheriff's station. Emma sat on the steps with a gun on her lap, watching the street. She straightened up when Belle stumbled up to the steps.

"Belle? What is it? You look… strange, not like yourself."

Belle felt strange. Her face was cool but her loins hot and her head pounded. She was dizzy, felt drunk, felt desperate. "Let me in. Goddammit. Let me in, Emma."

"She's got to be a wolf by now."

Belle lunged forward and grasped Emma around the throat, nails – claws? – cutting into her skin. "_Let me in_. I need to see the _coward_."

Emma's eyes widened and she struggled. "What the fuck, Belle?"

"Let me in!"

"Sure!" Emma hurried and unlocked the door. The moment it opened Belle shoved past her. Ruby, still human, was pressed against the bars, eyes wide.

"What are you—"

Belle didn't stop, just charged up to the cell and reached through, grabbing Ruby's shoulders, lifting up on her toes, and kissing her. It was half a kiss, half a bite, lips and teeth clashing savagely, rough and desperate. Ruby's hands caught her waist, drawing her in until they were pressed together, only the cell bars like unbending chaperones between them.

Belle broke the kiss, gasping for breath, leaving Ruby stunned and panting and needy. It was enthralling, that look of submission on her face, and Belle wanted her, wanted to pin her and hurt her and fill her with young, and these feelings were _not_ normal. They were not right. They were _not_ hers.

"What the _hell_ did you do to me?"

_x x x_


	4. Chapter 4

Ruby couldn't breathe after that kiss, couldn't think. Belle was here, looking wild, and furious, and passionate, and Ruby had never wanted to be fucked so much in either of her lives. She kept a tight hold on Belle's waist, not letting her pull away, and wanted to break the bars, bury her face in her neck and breathe.

But it was impossible to ignore the fury in her voice, and Ruby fumbled for some sort of response. "You… what?"

"What's _happening_ to me?" Belle's voice cracked like she was about to cry, and Ruby started to panic. "I hate this. I want you. I want you so much, and I know it's not _me_. It's like you infected me, like I'm becoming like you."

The words ripped into her like a threshing machine. _It's not me_. Any hope she'd had that this was real and not just another horrific part of her curse was wrecked. She wanted to howl. Her throat started to contort, but Belle grabbed her head and pressed another hot, rough kiss against her mouth.

"_Fuck_." Belle's nails cut into her skin. She groaned the word. "I hate this. I hate not having any control. It's like Lacey all over again, like riding in my own body without having any way to make a choice; it's like being a prisoner. Why did you have to _do_ this to me? If you actually wanted me, why didn't you _ask_?"

"I'm _sorry_," Ruby whimpered. "I didn't _know_. I didn't _mean to_."

Belle took a breath that sounded like a sob. "The book said you chose me. It said I was special. I should have known that was a lie."

"_What?_ _No!"_ Ruby dropped to her knees and pressed her face into her belly. "No. I _did_ want you. I should have asked before. I was so scared. I love you."

Belle stiffened. "Don't– don't say that _now_. I can't _believe_ that now."

"I love you," Ruby mumbled. "I'll still love you tomorrow. In a week. In a year."

"I _can't_…"

"Um, you guys? Do you want me to open the cell? I could do that, you know. Or, um, should I run away?"

Belle turned to glare at Emma, her lips curling away from her teeth.

"I should run away."

Belle jerked out of Ruby's grasp. "No," she said. "No. I'm okay. But don't open the cell."

Ruby whined, and Belle whirled on her. "No!" she scolded. "No. You didn't let me choose to be like this, to want you like this. I need to make a choice, and I can't choose yes, not when I want you so much. I have to choose no. Not tonight."

Ruby clung to the bars and fought down the wolf. "Yes. I understand. Yes." But she felt like she was breaking apart.

"Emma. You have handcuffs right? I need you to bind me, keep me away from the cell."

Emma stared from one to the other with wide eyes. "Jesus," she said. But she found some cuffs.

When she brought them to Belle, who was shaking and pale, Ruby lost her grip and lunged at the bars. "Don't touch her!" The barked words finished in a growl.

"Down!" Belle snapped at her, and Ruby dropped, raising her shoulders and lowering her head.

"Sorry."

Emma snapped the cuffs onto Belle, the chain looped around a pipe on the opposite side of the room. "You'll be okay?"

Belle forced a smile. "How should I know?"

Emma gave them a worried look, and then went back to her post on the steps.

Ruby curled up against the bars and stared at Belle who stared back. She found one last store of inner strength and didn't cry, didn't wolf out, just breathed and watched her. "If—" She choked back her weakness. "If I had asked before, if I had told you…"

"I might have said yes," Belle replied. "Maybe… maybe not right away. But once I had stopped freaking out, I might have said yes."

Ruby buried her face in her knees and let herself cry. Her wolf howled its sorrow silently inside.

x x x

Emma was asleep on the steps, gun in a limp hand. Granny prodded her shoulder. She jerked, raising the gun and waving it around. "Wha? What?"

"Emma!"

Emma blinked and sat up straight. "Granny?"

Granny cuffed her on the ear. "The safety better be on that."

"It is!"

"Let me in. I'd like to see my granddaughter."

Emma jumped up and hurriedly unlocked the door. Granny strode inside and then stopped. Ruby was inside the cell, lying pressed right up against the bars, bruises coming out on her face and shoulders. Belle was slumped against the wall on the other side of the room, arms above her head, still chained to the bar, wrists raw and sticky with blood. Granny lunged toward her, tugging open her pajama shirt, and revealing the raised red bitemark.

She slapped Belle across the face.

With a jerk, Belle woke up, eyes widening. "_What?_"

"You didn't tell me that she _bit_ you!" God, she had thought that Belle was _intelligent_, but she hadn't even bothered to let the authority know that she'd been bitten by a _werewolf_.

"I'm sorry. I didn't… think."

Granny shook her head. "Damn it. And it seems you've already started to change."

Belle's eyes widened. "I thought… I thought it just transferred the heat." But she looked guilty, like she was lying. She wasn't _that_ stupid.

Granny crossed her arms. "Don't be a fool. You've read books. Most are bullshit, but there's a reason they call it a curse."

Emma knelt beside them and undid the handcuffs. She held them tentatively, grimacing at the blood, and eyes widening when she noticed that they were slightly bent.

"Granny?" Ruby's voice came rough and exhausted. "Is she okay?'

"As much as anyone is when they're turning into a werewolf," Granny snapped at her.

"She's _what_?" Ruby sat up, her hair a mess, eyes wide.

"You're all _babies_," Granny snapped. "Damn it! Now I have two of you to watch."

Belle curled over her torn wrists. "It _hurts_."

Emma rubbed her head, her expression muddled. She went to the cell and unlocked it.

Ruby blinked at her. "What are you doing?"

"Get out of there," Emma said, sounding beat. "I'm so out of my depth with this."

Ruby hesitated, and then slowly crawled across the floor, pausing a few feet from Belle and dropping down into a submissive posture. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"Make it _better_," Belle managed.

Granny gave Ruby an encouraging swat on the head. Ruby moved toward her and curled around her, touching her shoulder gently. Belle leaned into her and Ruby wrapped her arms around her, pulling her in. "I can't," she said softly.

Granny caught Emma by the shirt and pulled her into the bathroom. "Get disinfectant and a bowl of warm water. Clean out those wounds."

Emma nodded. "Is there… is there anything that you can do?"

"Now? After a heat bite? When she's already showing symptoms? We could kill her."

Emma jerked around. "What?"

Granny raised an eyebrow. "No. There's nothing. It's too late. But if you don't want anyone else to get the idea to cut off the tree at the roots, you keep this quiet. If the mob finds out Ruby's spread the curse, they'll start to call it an epidemic and panic."

"Oh god. They'll go after them both."

"Of course they will. They were already not sure about Belle, and after that announcement she made on the steps, they've been getting more and more certain that she's complicit."

"Regina mentioned some of the… laws."

Granny pressed her lips together. "Yes. There are some laws that encouraged werewolves to leave town as quickly as possible. The trouble was always when someone found a mate and went back for them. It was hard not to reveal yourself. Double hangings were common enough. The best plan was to figure out who it was, then kidnap them, and have it all happen away from town. I can't say that all the bad names werewolves have are wrong. But they're there for a reason."

"Kidnapping?"

"Kidnapping, asking the target to run away. It depended on how much self-awareness the werewolf had. And the social class of the target. Asking a princess to run away with a wolfpack was rarely effective, and kidnapping a princess from a castle also rarely turned out well. To be honest, this could have been worse back home."

Emma stared at her. "Do you think it would have _happened_ back in the enchanted forest?"

Granny shrugged. "Might have done."

"Is… choosing a mate like true love?"

Granny snorted. "_Like_ true love? Sure. It makes no sense and it happens at the least opportune time and it leaves destruction in its wake. It's _like_ true love. Is it true love? Well, it doesn't break any curses. You decide."

Emma nodded, then headed back into the office with the warm water and disinfectant. Granny followed. Belle and Ruby were still curled up together, asleep on the floor. Belle murmured slightly when Emma started cleaning her wounds, but didn't wake up properly.

Well, it wasn't likely they had gotten much sleep that night.

x x x

Emma was dozing on her desk when there was a short crisp knock on the door. She staggered up, glancing down at the girls still asleep on the floor, now wrapped up under a blanket, and the cloak, just in case. Ruby had her nose buried in Belle's hair. Belle was making little twitches, wincing quietly, then moving toward Ruby and giving out a little sigh and quieting for a little while. Was she dreaming? Wolf dreams? Emma wondered what was going on in her head.

Regina was at the door, glancing around suspiciously, as if she didn't want anyone to see her there. Emma stepped outside and pulled the door shut behind her.

"You're not inviting me in?"

"I don't want to wake them up."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "I'm not talking to you out here. Diner?"

Emma locked the door behind her and they walked down the street to the diner. It was between lunch and dinner, and mostly empty. They took the corner table.

Granny came up. "Everything okay?"

Emma nodded. "Still sleeping."

"Can I get you anything?"

"Coffee, please. Lots of coffee."

She left and Regina looked at her. "A further development?"

Emma nodded. "Wolfstime looks like it's getting more populated."

Regina hmmed. "Yes, I rather expected that."

"That makes one of us."

"I had a good relationship with a pack of werewolves in the old world. I started to notice that the pack expanded when mates were acquired. I occasionally assisted with procuring a potential mate."

"Ah, kidnapping."

"And purchase. That was my usual function, buying daughters from fathers and so forth."

Emma gaped at her. "They sold their daughters?"

"They were _happy_ to sell their daughters. I was quite generous. Everyone sold their daughters back home. It just depended on the price."

Emma grimaced and shook it off. "Have anything for me?"

"I'm not sure how pleased anyone else will be knowing I'm your evidence lab, but yes. There were trace remnants of drugs in both samples. Different ones. Decidedly different, in fact. Since Miss Lucas' clearly contained magic."

"Oh." Emma grimaced. "Well, that means that letting her out of the cell was okay. She's clear then."

"Clear of intent, not of action."

Emma nodded.

"And you said the last thing she recalled was being on the fringes of the woods near town. I went to the clearing closest to the library and discovered this." Regina dropped a needle on the table. "If you want to drug a wolf…"

Emma breathed in stiffly through her nose. "I know who I want for it."

Regina nodded. "I do too. Means, motive and opportunity. The only trouble is how to make it stick."

x x x

Belle was running through the forest, on four legs, pausing to scent animal trails, considering hunting, but not quite hungry enough yet. She was just running, enjoying the cool night, the exciting smells and forest sounds. She scented a familiar trail, a fellow wolf, her favorite wolf, and hurried after her. The bigger wolf, black in the night, emerged from a den under a tree. Belle ran toward her. The ruby-wolf perked up, noticing her, and went to meet her, padding happily through the forest. They could run together, hunt together, play and snuggle in the den, keeping warm and safe.

And then the scene changed. The ruby-wolf was still running toward her, but was running with a panicked desperation, across asphalt, down the street in the center of town. Behind her was a crowd of humans, torches and weapons. Belle went to go toward her, but Ruby yipped at her to run as well. Ruby caught up to her and they ran together, pursued by the shouting, by the violence.

They wanted to kill them. What had they done? What was so wrong with them that they deserved to be shot on the street?

A gunshot went off, and Belle jerked awake, breathing hard, pulling up, away from Ruby who was still wrapped around her like a blanket. _Shit_. She didn't want this. This wasn't supposed to happen to her! She pressed her hands to her face, only then noticing her bandaged wrists.

"Mmm?" Ruby started to wake up. "Hey." She reached out, trying to pull her back in.

Belle fought her off. "No! Don't touch me. Haven't you done enough?"

Ruby blinked awake properly and looked stricken. She pulled away into a ball. "Sorry."

Belle glared at her. "Stop saying that."

"What am I supposed to say?" Ruby snapped at her, finally getting angry instead of pathetic. It was almost a relief.

"I don't know!" Belle yelled.

"I'm saying sorry because I _am_ sorry! I never meant to hurt you or fuck up your life! Why do you think I never said anything before? Sure, I was afraid that you might reject me. But what if you were okay with it? What if you wanted me back? That would have been _worse._" Ruby clasped her shoulders and shook her. "I have nothing to offer you! I am a waitress with a bad reputation and a werewolf with murder on her rap sheet. I am a woman. I am _not_ your true love. I chained you up in a library and left you there while I tried to commit suicide by lynch-mob. I let the monster inside me imprint on you in a completely sketchy way, and then I lost control and took you without your consent. So I don't _care_ if you hate me or hurt me or leave me, because I deserve it. But I _am_ sorry!"

Belle swung at her, intending to shove her off, and clipped her nose, which flooded red.

"Oh shit!" Belle scrambled up and found the tissue box and pressed a wad against Ruby's bleeding nose. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you in the face."

Ruby looked like a scolded puppy, and it _hurt_.

"Damn it." Belle crawled onto her lap and held the tissues more firmly against her nose. Ruby tried to lean her head back, but Belle caught it and tilted it forward. Then she carefully pinched her nostrils together. "Sit still. We've got ten minutes of this."

Ruby whimpered slightly.

Belle sighed. "Okay. I need to use my words. I'm not so good with alternative forms of communication, it seems."

Ruby gave a slight smile.

"Are you this angry all the time? Because the last time I was this angry… well, my life had just been turned upside down then too."

"It's worse at wolfstime," Ruby murmured, sounding a bit odd because of her plugged nose. She let her hand slide down Belle's back and settle at her waist.

Belle nodded. "Okay," she said. "Okay." She leaned forward and rested her head against Ruby's shoulder. "I'm sorry. And not just for punching you in the nose. I just…" She lifted her head. "You're my _best_ friend. You've been my best friend since I came into town, alone and confused, and you were perfect. And then you nearly died, because you thought you deserved it, and I thought I had lost the only person I could really trust, and I sat there and I cried non-stop until your grandmother came to unchain me and tell me that you weren't _dead_. And that was it. I was done with your self-hatred. Because I could have _lost_ you to it. And I'm mad at you, for letting it rule your life. And I am _more_ angry that you are letting it rule mine. You didn't let me choose to trust you, to try to protect you. You didn't let me choose to be with you. You didn't let me choose to become like you. But I never get a choice. So why should I be surprised?"

"I… I would have never made you do this if I could have helped it."

"I know." Belle curled into her again. "But if you had _told_ me, we could have been prepared. And if you had been in control, I know you wouldn't have bitten me. But _not_ telling me because you think you don't deserve me is still taking my choices away. And I'm sad, and upset, and scared. But I _don't_ want to hear about what you think you deserve. You think you don't deserve me, but then who does? Do you think Rumpel deserves me?"

Ruby stiffened. "No."

"Then who?"

"No one! You're too good—"

"So I deserve to be alone?"

Ruby stilled. "Of course not. You just deserve someone good enough…"

Belle sighed. "I don't want someone good enough. I don't need that. I just want _someone_. Do you think I would have been with Rumpel if I cared about reputation? But I do care when you make decisions for me, when you don't even offer yourself to me because you have already decided I won't pick you."

"Might have worked myself up to it eventually." Ruby's eyes were lowered. "I can't say I like it when my wolf makes the decisions for me either. Just because we agree about you doesn't mean we agreed about the right way to go about it."

"I know." Belle looked down, shoulders sinking.

"Can you unplug my nose now?"

"No, five more minutes."

Ruby made a face.

x x x

"Oh god!" yelped Emma. "I leave you guys alone for like ten minutes and there's blood everywhere!"

Ruby frowned at her. "Not _everywhere._"

Belle finally let go of her nose. She frowned, examining it carefully. "Okay, I think it's stopped."

"What happened?"

"Someone hasn't gotten used to her strength." Ruby squirmed up to her feet. "Now I need to wash my face or they'll think I've savaged someone else."

"Um, before you go. We've got the lab results back. You guys were both drugged. It looks like it was a magic shooting knock-out tranq gun for you, Ruby."

Ruby froze in the door of the bathroom. "So it was him."

"Well, it was someone who could use magic, and since Regina was my consultant, probably not her?"

"Who else has a motive?"

Belle forced herself up off the ground, hands balling into fists. "Who's going to _regret_ this even more? I can't believe this. It's the whole, if I can't have her, no one will. What is he, twelve? And did he even think it through?"

"Did he think at all?"

Belle frowned. "I don't know. What was the plan? Incapacitate us both during your heat, so that we would have sex? So you'd attack me? How would he know we'd do anything? That I wouldn't just pass out at home and you wouldn't just run around the woods like a wolf?"

"He knocked me out. If I hadn't been in heat, I would have murdered someone, and that deals with me."

"No, that doesn't make any sense. You changed a day early and he drugged you that night. That means he knew you were going into heat."

"How? _I_ didn't know I was going into heat!"

Belle shrugged. "He had the book. There are signs. And I think he must have expected it."

"He _knew_ I was in love with you?"

Emma snorted, and they both turned to glare at her. "Seriously, Rubes? Subtlety is not really your strong point. But I'm glad to hear you admit it."

Ruby turned red.

Belle frowned. "I didn't know."

"I've been a crush spectator for many years. Also, my _mom_ knew. She kind of thought you were hooking up already."

"But that means he wanted it to be sexual," Belle said. "He wanted me to be vulnerable and you to be out of control. He wanted you to hurt me."

For a moment no one spoke.

"And I did," Ruby said finally.

Belle gave a forced shrug. She grimaced. "Whatever. I don't remember it. What you did do was bite me. And I have to think that if he read that book he would have expected it, or at least allowed for it. He decided to risk my becoming a werewolf."

"How could he even think to risk that!" yelped Ruby. "If he knew—"

Belle smiled tightly. "He wants to break me. He wants me to run back to him and beg him to keep me safe. Or he wants me dead. Both options are better than letting me choose what _I_ want."

Ruby looked at her, eyes dark and wide. "That's disgusting."

"Yes, well, no one ever said I had good taste in partners."

Ruby closed her eyes, then ducked into the bathroom. The water started running.

Emma looked at Belle. "Are you two all right?"

Belle shook her head. "We talked a little, but… I'm turning into a _werewolf_, and I just can't get over that here is _another_ choice that was taken from me. And Ruby… I love her. She's my best friend. But I don't want to be her _mate_. I don't want to have had her pick me and have me not be able to say no_._"

"I am _not_ going to force you to be with me," Ruby said, reappearing in the doorway, blood mostly cleared off her face. "I would _never—"_

"Your _wolf_ did its best!" Belle snapped back. "It made me want you more than reason. I couldn't even feel the pain of the metal shredding my wrists because I wanted to get to you so badly. You didn't let me _choose!_"

"And you think that it's easier for me because I was _born_ a wolf? You think that _I_ got to choose to become a monster every month? You think I chose to murder my boyfriend, to kill my mother, to have the world tell my grandmother I was a slut? Suck it _up_."

Belle looked furious, hands balling into fists. "I'm not going to hit you again."

"_Good_. Make that choice. Sometimes the only one you get is to not eat your own vomit. And sometimes you don't even get that."

_x x x_


	5. Chapter 5

Snow and Charming rolled in while Ruby and Belle were both still scowling at each other.

David looked between them, taking in their strained expressions, the bandages on Belle's wrists and the traces of blood on Ruby's face. He took a step toward one of his closest friends and reached out. "Um, is everything all right?" he asked. Then he made a face. It was clear that it wasn't, and it couldn't be, not with what had happened. "You know, besides, uh, everything."

Ruby shook herself, like a wolf clearing its coat of water. She looked over at Emma. "Emma, am I still arrested?"

"Uh, no. You're free to go. But people are kind of…"

Ruby grabbed David's shirt and pulled him out of the back door into the small yard.

"Hey, hey, girl. You know I'm spoken for." He grinned dumbly at her, but when he saw her shoulders droop, he reached out. "Um, you need a hug?"

"Yeah," Ruby murmured.

David pulled her in and give her a squeeze.

The muscles of her back were stiff and taut under his arms, and he was reminded of trying to comfort Red, long ago, when she had been wracked with guilt for the innocents she had killed. "Need to talk?"

She pressed her face into his shoulder. "I just… I'm so in love with her."

David straightened up, surprised. He had heard rumors that the attack had been sexual, but he hadn't believed it. It was just filthy gossip. Ruby would never do something like that. He had never thought that she might have wanted to. "You… you are?"

She jerked away from him, and gave him a look that was full of betrayal. But he didn't think it was directed at him. "Well that's one person who didn't know! I've been trying so hard to keep this under wraps, because I didn't want you all to hate me, and then I lose control and my wolf takes her, and it's like, what the hell was I so worried about? I could have shouted it from the rooftops and groped her in public and you wouldn't all hate me as much as you do now!"

"Ruby," David managed. "We don't hate you." He hadn't felt this bewildered since he had woken up from the coma. His memories of being David Nolan were muddled at best, since he hadn't had the twenty-eight years of acting on the suggested behaviors that everyone else had, but he vaguely had the sense of being liberal about this sort of thing. And it was Ruby, Red, his friend. He couldn't let her flounder like this. But what could he do?

"She thinks of me as some pathetic, obsessed loser. And I know she blames me for the werewolf date-rape problem, but she keeps on saying she doesn't, and then she punches me in the face for it. It's fine if she's not into me, it's fine if she hates me, it's fine if she doesn't. But she needs to make a decision!"

David closed his hands around Ruby's upper arms and looked her in the face. He smiled awkwardly. "So, um, all I'd heard is that you two had a wolfy encounter that neither of you remember."

Ruby looked at him, wide eyed, as if suddenly realizing that she had spilled more than she had intended to. David maintained the smile, aiming for nothing but sympathetic.

Ruby put a hand to her face. "We did. I… kind of remember some of it. But I was out cold. It's just wolf memories."

"Oh."

Ruby grimaced. "And phase two. I bit her. She's becoming a werewolf."

David's eyes widened. "I didn't know you could do that." But then, she hadn't wounded many people back when they were fighting together. If Red attacked you, you were dead.

"Well, I can." She sounded tired, exhausted and overwhelmed.

David wanted to hug her again. He put an arm over her shoulders and gave her a bro hug. Girl issues, that's what bros were for. Or, maybe he needed to be sensitive? He wasn't sure which. He frowned, considering the situation "What's it like, becoming a wolf?" he asked.

Ruby looked at him, blinking quickly, but not able to hide the glitter of tears caught in her lashes. "For her? I… have no idea. Pretty rough, I'd imagine."

"So." He squeezed her shoulders again. "Maybe she's a bit angry and confused and hormonal right now?"

"Yeah." Ruby breathed out. "Shit."

"And… you seem kind of on edge too."

Ruby nodded, pressing her hands to her face and rubbing her eyes. "The wolf, it just, it's feeling this all so strongly, and it's taking all my control right now."

"And she's never had to control a wolf."

"Fine. I've been a jerk." Ruby shook her head. "I should apologize, but she seems to hate that too."

David gave her a smile. He knew this one. "Well, I've always found that when someone is, um, hormonal, that it can be better to just grin and bear it until it's over and make up later."

Ruby frowned at him suspiciously. "And that works?"

"Sure." Not always. And it only really worked if he hadn't really done something stupid, like not telling his estranged wife that he was seeing someone new. But… there were certain times of the month where you just had to keep your head down. Girls didn't always hear apologies. "It cuts down on groveling time. And if you both know it was just chemically induced crazy, you can get straight to the make up sex without wasting time processing all your feelings." He smiled, and then had an image of what Ruby's make up sex might look like and felt himself turning red.

Ruby looked away. "She's got every reason to be pissed at me right now. But there isn't anything I can do to fix it. And she's becoming a wolf. She's going to need help. I don't know what's going to happen tonight, and if I'm scared of it, she must be terrified."

"The town is pretty terrified too." They seemed even more stirred up than they had been on the first full moon after magic returned. David wondered if some of that had to do with the salacious gossip that was doing the rounds. Snow had barely managed to stop him from punching one man through a wall when he had started speculating about werewolf anatomy. And now he was wondering.

"What?" Ruby looked at him. "They don't know that she's…"

"No. They don't know that you bit her. But they do know that you were arrested for attacking her the night before last, and that you were kept locked up last night. There are people saying that keeping you in jail isn't enough if you're out of control again."

"And they want to deal with me permanently." Ruby sighed. "God, I don't think I can deal with another mob. And if they find out about what I did, they'll go after her too." Her shoulders hunched, her arms wrapping around herself, holding her stomach as if she was going to be sick. "I can't let them hurt her. Not when it's all my fault."

"Then we need to work out how to protect you both."

x x x

The moment Ruby left, Belle seemed to deflate. She pressed her hands against her eyes, and swore under her breath. Snow looked at Emma, eyebrows raised in a question. Emma just shook her head. She had no fucking clue what was going on with them.

Snow turned her back on Belle, and spoke in a half-whisper. "Emma, people are getting crazy out there. Whale's been insinuating things, and I'm not sure if more people think Ruby assaulted her or if it was mutual, and they definitely haven't decided which was worse."

"Fuck," Emma said. "Regina warned me, in her own creepy way, that that might happen. But we're still under her laws, right? Boning magical beasts is still okay?"

"Not when they're in wolf shape."

"She wasn't in wolf shape. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The injuries, even the shape of the bite mark, are evidence."

"And is anyone going to believe you?" asked Snow.

"I don't believe you," said Belle. "She might have been in human shape, but I fucked a goddamn wolf."

Emma stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"Ruby was unconscious when she changed back. She was knocked out for the whole time. I slept with a wolf in a human body – a mostly human body. What does the law say about that?"

"I don't know," Emma replied, uncomfortable. But she could guess that it probably wasn't pretty.

"It's disgusting. Why couldn't she have left me alone?"

"Belle…" Emma said. "You're not going to give her a chance?"

Belle glared. "She had a chance. She fucked up. She bit me."

Snow frowned. "Bit you?"

Emma rubbed her forehead, feeling a migraine coming in. "Yeah. It looks like there's going to be a busier wolfstime this month, and, if we survive this one, in the future."

Snow's eyes widened. Then she cocked her head and smiled slightly at Belle. Belle stiffened defensively in response. "That's… kind of nice."

Emma shot a look of disbelief at her mom. "You're serious?"

"Ruby always wanted someone to run with."

"I'm not going to run with her!" Belle snapped. "I'm not hers. You can't just bite someone and violate them and expect them to be your mate for eternity!"

Emma tried to avoid making eyecontact with anyone.

"You know she didn't mean to."

"I've had enough of excusing people for their mistakes!"

Snow had set her jaw, and Emma was ready to run. This could go nowhere good. "That's actually quite pleasant to hear. To be honest, I never thought you were good enough for her, because I knew you would always forgive Rumpel and go running back to him. But if you're done with splashing around forgiveness like it changes people, maybe she's got a chance of you sticking around."

Belle's eyes narrowed, and Emma swallowed hard, wondering if the people who were sure that Gold's girlfriend was secretly as evil as he was had actually been on to something. "What do you know about forgiveness?" she asked. "What do you know about changing people? You think you're so much better than everyone, but you and Regina are the same. Each condemning the other for something you would never blame yourself for. And neither of you can let it go, so neither of you can change."

"You can keep your nose out of my business, thank you!" Snow snapped back. "And if you're going to treat my best friend like shit, I'm glad you don't want her. I won't let you have her."

"Look at you," Belle snarled. "Judging me, telling me what I do and don't deserve. All you ever do is judge people, and people bow and scrape and beat themselves up to earn your respect. No wonder Ruby can't stop hating herself. She's a chosen one, she's one who you've said is fine, but she can see the people you despise and how she isn't all that different from them, so she has to keep hating herself so you don't suddenly start hating her."

"You don't know anything about me! And you don't know anything about her!"

"I know she wanted David to comfort her and not you!"

"You little hypocrite! You say I judge people, when you've decided that Ruby's the one person who doesn't get your forgiveness, when you were willing to give Gold chance after chance, when you still won't put the blame where it's due."

Belle jerked back slightly, as if she had hit home, and Emma winced. Maybe it was an addiction. Was she ever going to be able to really leave him behind?

"I know it's not her fault," Belle said. "It doesn't change what she did or how I feel about it. Her wolf wanted me, so it took me. It changed me. I didn't get a choice."

Snow rolled her eyes. "I saw you that night. I watched you hang all over her when she told you that the wolf was on edge. And I watched you walk back into the library and close and lock the door. That wolf didn't pick the lock. You went to her."

"So I wanted it? I was asking for it? Don't you dare tell me I asked for it. I didn't ask for this." Belle jerked open the collar of her shirt to expose the bite – red and raised, ugly dark lines spiderwebbed out from it, infecting her.

Snow backed up two steps, eyes going wide. "Shit," she said. "You are turning."

"You thought I was joking?" Belle pressed her fists against her face, teeth clenching as she tried to pull herself back together. "I could kill someone tonight. I could do anything, because I won't have control of anything, not even my own body. Don't I have a right to be angry?"

Snow sighed and pushed her bangs back from her forehead. "No, no. You definitely have a right to be angry. But it's not really Ruby's fault, is it? What could she have done?"

Belle gave a rough laugh. "She could have not fallen in love with me."

Snow stared at her. "Ruby doesn't deserve to be lonely forever."

"So she can have me? Is that it? I'm the used up, tainted, worthless girl that you can throw at her to stop her crying. Rumpel doesn't deserve anyone because he's evil. Ruby's only a little bit of a monster, so she deserves someone, but not true love, not true love that actually works out, because only the special people get that. Only people like you."

"You don't deserve to be lonely either."

Belle looked like she'd been punched. Her gaze fell to her feet. "I just wanted to be allowed to choose this time."

"Guys," Emma heard feet coming up the back steps and finally decided it was time to cut in. "Let's just take this shit show for what it is and try to stop it from getting any worse."

Snow nodded, giving Belle a somewhat disappointed look. "We need to calm people down. I thought we could let people know that it was all a misunderstanding and that Ruby is still in control, if they saw you guys in public together, saw that you were over it. But you're not over it."

Belle wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I had a similar idea," Ruby said, walking back into the office, David trailing behind her.

Belle stiffened at her entrance like a shock had gone up her back. Her eyes shot from Snow to Ruby, and she took a step, moving just slightly between them, facing Snow, as if trying to keep her away. Ruby's eyes fell on her and went soft and hurt, but she seemed calmer and more in control than she had before.

"I thought we should go on a date."

"A date?" Belle turned, her voice harshly incredulous. "Now?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "A nice, public, human date. A friends date, even. We'll show them that we're fine. No hard feelings. No secrets. We've got a few hours before moonrise, and we should really talk about what might happen tonight. If we can pretend to be civilized for an hour or two, we can kill two birds with one stone."

Belle stuck out her lower lip stiffly. "I can pretend."

Ruby huffed out a tiny laugh and then smiled. It was a real smile – the first one Emma had seen on her face since Ruby had left the Rabbit Hole two nights before. Belle's eyes widened a bit and the stiff defensive tension fell out of her expression. Emma tried not to roll her eyes.

x x x

Belle felt like her heart was beating at double its usual rate and her blood was coursing through her veins like rivers in the monsoon. Her skin seemed hot to the touch, ears radiating heat, nose twitching and itchy. And she was angry. It didn't make sense, but she was boiling in fury. And whenever Ruby was around, or even mentioned, it was worse. Ruby was like the spark that set off the flame of rage inside her, and this date was sounding like a worse and worse idea.

But it was a date. It wasn't kidnapping, entrapment, manipulation, assault. She had said yes. She had chosen to do it. And it was no pressure. A friend's date… until moonrise at least. Then, Belle swallowed, then all bets were off.

She had to find long sleeves to cover her wrecked wrists and a high neck to go over the bite mark. Essentially, it was not going to be a sexy outfit date. She felt absurd for even considering it. Was it her wolf? Was she going to have a wolf to blame for all her dirty thoughts soon?

Was she going to have to blame her wolf for a murder of a friend soon?

She didn't want this. She was just beginning to sort out her life, stay away from Rumpel, think about what she might want to do in the future. And now this. Now she was hemmed in on all sides, her body being stolen and used, not just by Ruby's wolf, but by her own.

Was this what they had in mind when they told her about freedom? Snow loved her happy endings, but she didn't get it, how sometimes a happy ending felt like a trap.

Belle had just finished dressing when she heard the knock on the library doors. She bolted down the stairs and threw open the door. Ruby was on the steps, looking a bit stiff.

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey." Belle breathed in and felt something inside of her lurch desperately.

"I'm feeling a lot of hate eyes right now," she said. "Can I come inside?"

"Um, yeah." Belle backed up, trying to find some air that wasn't full of Ruby.

Ruby stepped in, rolling her neck a bit, as if trying to shake the looks off. "Emma walked me over and yelled at enough people that I was clear so I don't think they're going to citizens-arrest me. You still up for this?"

Belle nodded. "I think we need to." She swallowed. "Thank you for asking, though."

"I can be sensitive."

"I never said you weren't."

Ruby's shoulders drooped and she breathed out. "Are we okay? Because I've been getting whiplash with you – I'm not to blame, I'm a horrible person who has ruined your life…"

"Can't both be true?"

Ruby laughed. "Yes. Yes, both can be true. But where are you falling on the spectrum right now?"

Belle gave her a look and half a wry smile. "You heard everything I said to Snow, didn't you."

Ruby tapped her ear. "You know the drill."

Belle sighed, ashamed of her outbursts. But Snow had just walked in and assumed that whatever she thought was right was. "She still thinks I'll go back to Gold. She was so supportive before, but she never really believed it."

Ruby looked away. "You could go back to him. If anyone could fix this, he could. He'd make the effort for you. You wouldn't have to turn into a monster."

"You're not a monster," Belle hissed.

"Tell me that tomorrow."

Belle just shook her head. "I can't run to Gold. He caused this. He'd win. And I'm angry. I'm too angry to think clearly about anything. I feel like I need to make decisions right and left, survive tonight, run to Gold, plan my future as a wolf, figure out how I feel about you. But I can't do that right now. I'm mired up in all of these feelings and instincts and lusts, and there's no way I can sort out what I'm really feeling or what I really want."

"I get that."

"I know that you are not responsible for this mess. You couldn't help it. But you're a really convenient target when I want to lash out."

"I know," Ruby rubbed her nose.

"And I'm so sorry."

"I think we can all blame the wolf this week."

Belle sighed. "I don't know if this will change, but right now I don't feel like there's a wolf. I feel like me, just without any impulse control and a heightened sense of smell."

"Yeah. That's it, basically. It's… everything you want to repress, plus a couple of crazy instincts for chasing rabbits and running."

Belle frowned. "Is that why… why you feel so responsible, because it does the things you want to do?"

"It doesn't always. It's not just my id. It's also an animal. I don't want to eat carrion or savage people, most of the time. But there's enough overlap that I can't help but wonder… And, well, I know I wanted you. It was me wanting you that made the wolf do it. Emma pointed that out. Why would a wolf be attracted to a human? Even a lesbian wolf."

"I know I said to Snow that you could have not…" Ruby gave her a sad smile, and Belle wished hard that her mouth would stop moving faster than her brain. "But you can't be blamed for having feelings. Please don't blame me for all this anger. I wish… I wish I had any answers. But I don't. I can't even tell whether I like you or its just all of this."

"Then… lets not worry about it, okay? Let's just get through this week, and next week, when reasonable thought processes return, we can do this again and sort it out."

Belle looked at her. "A real date?"

Ruby looked surprised, and then smiled. "If that's what you want. Would you like to have a date, next Sunday, 10 am, Granny's?"

"Yes. I would." Belle felt like she could breathe again. She didn't have to think about this right now. She wanted to hug Ruby, and lick her face. Okay. That was the wolf. She restrained herself and shook her head. "Let's just get through tonight."

x x x

There was something wilder about Belle tonight, something about the fall of her curls and the light in her eyes. Ruby's wolf wanted it, and yet was hesitant about it at the same time. It was a wild wolf, a new wolf, young and brash and dangerous, filled with the instinct to kill.

Belle, herself, was a little pensive, and staying tightly under control. But she was hearing the same things Ruby was hearing.

"Oh god, they're here together?"

"What is she thinking, is she insane?"

"Emma Swan might be the savior, but she is a terrible sheriff."

"That Sheriff doesn't understand. You can't protect a town when you let a werewolf live there, and that one will forgive anything."

"Anyone who could have been with Mr. Gold would be happy to risk her life for a little wild sex."

Ruby choked her wolf by the throat and ignored it. But she could tell Belle was getting upset, and upset meant angry, and angry meant bad things could happen, especially as the influence of the moon was growing. "Hey," she said, trying to offer a distraction. "So, I'm not good on a lot of things, but if you want to know what it's like to be a wolf…"

Belle looked surprised. "I… I might like that. I mean, right now all I know is that you like to run and want to eat your own vomit."

Ruby's drink came out her nose with laughter. "Oh, god, I said that, didn't I?"

Belle gave her a look, one eyebrow raised. "Indeed. You're really not selling the prospect."

"Once you're in control, it's not so bad. It's like visiting a different world. Everything is scent and heat and motion. I try not to eat carrion, but the hot crunch of a mouse or the scent of a fox can be too overpowering to resist. Sometimes I think that everything is real as a wolf in a way that it's not as a human. It's less duplicitous. You don't have to understand things, just run and eat and sleep and fight."

"You have an almost lyrical way of describing it," said Belle. "But did you just say you eat raw mice?"

Ruby laughed. "Tasty little things!"

"I am not looking forward to this."

No, Ruby thought. She remembered the broken, contorted, dream-like images of being a wolf for the first time, the lack of control, the way everything went to her head and turned her insane, and the gush of blood.

Blood.

Doctor Whale strode up to the table and gave them both a vicious look. "You two buried the hatchet I see."

"Go away, Whale," Ruby grumbled.

"Oh," Whale smiled at her cruelly. "You don't want me to remind you that you forced this girl into sex. You want it all to be charmingly romantic and not a tawdry, violent, fuck with a wolf."

Ruby was breathing hard. "Don't you dare say a word about her."

"Oh, I have nothing against her. She's just the victim. You're the predator. You were born that way – made to hunt, and hurt, and murder."

There was a screech of metal, and Belle was standing, the table twisted up on its stand. "Stop."

Whale's eyes widened. "What the hell?" Then his eyes flicked from Belle to Ruby, taking in Belle's slitted eyes and bared teeth and wild hair, and he cupped his mouth in horror. "What did you do to her?"

Belle growled, stepping toward him. She thrust out her hands, hitting Whale in the chest and making him stumble back. "Don't speak about her like that! It's people like you that make her hate herself. She doesn't deserve that!"

"Oh my god." Whale stared at Ruby. "You turned her, didn't you? You spread the curse!"

"Get away from her! I can smell your filthy lust. You can't have her!" Belle's body contorted, the hair on her neck bristling up. Belle's hand swung out and he tried to dodge, but her nails shredded his shirt and skin. Blood welled up. "Mine!"

And her teeth were wrong, her body twisting, fur sprouting.

"Help!" shouted Whale. "Wolf! There's another wolf!"

Ruby dove toward Belle, grabbing the squirming, curling flesh and fur and clasping her to her chest. She leapt the counter and bolted into the kitchen.

"Kill them!" Whale screamed. "Kill the wolves!"

Granny threw open the back door. "Run, girl!" she shouted to Ruby. "Run, dammit! She'll be a devil tonight!"

The moon rose. Two wolves fled into the forest, one small and reddish brown, one big and nearly black. The little one tried to turn, to go back to the town, eyes bright and teeth sharp, ready to kill. The big one nipped it and growled, keeping it back, keeping it away from town. The small one snarled.

They fought.

x x x

Emma pounded on Regina's door. Regina jerked it open, wrapped in a silk robe, furious at being dragged out of her bath. "What!"

"It's all gone wrong! Belle shredded Whale's chest and he's getting up a mob, and they've got guns, and I don't know what to do!"

"Don't do anything," Regina said.

"What?"

"It's a mob. The people have spoken. Democracy in action. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I don't want the rule of terror!"

"You mean they're terrified, so they rule?"

"Exactly!"

Regina offered a cruel grin. "I always preferred the 'they're terrified so they obey,' version."

"I would totally be okay with that now!"

Regina smiled. "That's nice to hear." She patted Emma's cheek. "You and your precious family can slow the mob. I'm going to find Rumpel."

x x x

The small wolf was getting tired. It was young and scrappy, but young, and it hadn't had a lot of practice with running and fighting. And the big wolf was tough and strong and smart. It was always right there when the small wolf tried to dodge. It was always ready to clamp down on the fur around the small wolf's neck and drag it away from the scent of humans.

The small wolf just wanted to curl up and sleep. Belle moved in and snagged the reins. The wolf recoiled, but Belle fought for control. Hers, this body was hers, just as much as the other one was. Ruby pounced and pinned her down and Belle submitted. Wolfy breath panted in her face, and Belle whined.

Ruby cocked her head, ears perking up curiously. She leaned down, and Belle lifted her head up, letting their noses touch. Happily, Ruby flopped down on top of her. Belle struggled, but there was nothing to be done. Half squashed, but mostly comfy, she caught her breath. Ruby smelt warm, and rich, and alluring. She buried her nose into Ruby's ruff.

That was when she smelled the smoke and heard the vibrations in the earth. Ruby jumped up and Belle scrambled to her paws.

The hunters were coming.

They ran.

The panic jerked Belle's control away and the wolf took over again. Belle lost track of what was going on, she lost track of Ruby. She only ran. But the mob seemed always behind her, in front of her, to the left, to the right. They were on her tail. She heard gunshots, and ran even faster.

They were coming, closing in, and Belle found herself scrambling up a steep slope, a bare, exposed space, desperate to reach the cover of brush on top. The sides of the slope were like cliffs.

And then she saw the figure standing above her. A man, leaning on a cane. The wolf recoiled. But the man turned and looked at her, and smiled, and she couldn't move.

Pain shot through her as her body contorted. She was human again, the wolf raging in fury inside of her. Belle panted, clasping her bitten and bruised arms to her chest.

"Hello, darling," said Rumpelstiltzken.

Belle gasped for air. "You," she said. "You started all of this."

Rumpel smiled. "Me? I didn't start this. You did, when you left me. All of this comes down to you. You had a choice, and you made the wrong one."

Belle heard a gunshot from below and an animal scream. "Ruby!"

Rumpel laughed. "The wolf? Oh, she'll be dead by morning."

Belle lunged for him, but hit a barrier, sliding helplessly down it, onto her knees.

"Oh, that's how I like to see you. Ready to beg. Because you are going to beg."

"Never," Belle growled.

"I'm giving you a choice," Rumpel said flatly, "since you seem to like them so much."

Belle looked down, the torches still approaching. "What sort of choice?"

"I can save you. This werewolf problem is no trouble for me. I can make you human again. I can protect you, make you whole and keep you safe from these violent idiots. Or I can let you die."

"And Ruby?"

Rumpel scoffed. "She touched you. There's no way I could allow her to live."

Belle closed her eyes. "I would rather die a wolf than owe you anything ever again."

Rumpel went still. "Is that your final word?"

"I've made my choice."

"I won't forgive you again. I won't give you a second chance."

Belle looked at him. "You don't even know what a choice is, do you? Not a real one, not where you give up something you want for something you think is right. You've always been a coward. But I would rather take the chance to die trying to save her than hide in your arms and watch you take vengeance on the people I love."

Rumpel looked a little stunned and upset. "I could save her…" he said.

Belle laughed. "Look at you! Doubling back, cowering away from your loss! You thought I'd beg. I could beg you for her life. Do you want that too? She would hate me if I did. She's worth more than that. She is too good to be beholden to you, and too proud to want anyone to protect her. But she is my friend, more than anything else, and I would be happy to die fighting at her side."

"Nothing? You'll take nothing from me?"

"Nothing you have is worth taking, Rumpel! It's all poison, none of it gold!"

"Fine! Die with your wolf then!"

Rumpel hurled a ball of magic at her, and again, she contorted, her body twisting into the shape of a wolf. He puffed into smoke, and behind him grew a palisade. It was impassable. The only way out was back, and the torches were so close. But then Belle heard a howl. Ruby. Belle leapt, plunging down the slope, towards the torches, toward the howl.

Another puff of smoke appeared behind her, and she didn't stop. She also didn't register the female voice going, "Dammit!" She was too far away.

x x x

"She's down!"

"She's just injured. An injured wolf's still a killer!"

Emma fought her way to the head of the mob. "Oh god." Ruby, still a wolf, was slumped on the ground, bleeding freely from the shoulder.

"There's the other one!"

The smaller, reddish wolf, plunged in through the trees, and crouched, growling defensively, in front of Ruby. Ruby looked up, and then seemed to try to stand again, but stumbled and slumped down to the earth again.

"Don't shoot her!" Emma yelled, and jumped on the guy who had raised his weapon.

"You're mad! They're wolves!"

"They're people!" Emma grabbed his rifle and scrambled to her feet. "Look at them! You know them."

"The small one savaged Whale! This town doesn't need any more monsters!"

"Oh," said a very composed voice. "More than me, you mean?"

The evil queen stood alongside the wolves, facing down the crowd with a careless and bored stare. The people froze.

Emma had never been quite so grateful for a reign of terror in her life.

"There are lots of monsters in this town," Regina said. "Me, Gold, some of you. But we're a new colony in a new world now, aren't we? There's no reason to bring along our old prejudices."

"Yes, there is," snapped the mob leader.

"Oh?" Regina cocked her head. "You mean, of course, that wolves are always violent and savage. Especially in their heat moons, which, I may inform you, is right now, which is why this whole disaster began. Your old pal, Ruby Lucas, has given up on her rather shocking period of celibacy and has taken a mate. It was a bit of a surprise choice, for everyone concerned, but you know about wolves, right? They mate for life. It's not going to start an epidemic. Two wolves. Two charming friendly young lady wolves. You don't have to fear that you'll all be murdered in your beds."

Emma breathed tightly. Where was Regina going with this? It all felt like it could spin out of control any second.

The leader scoffed. "I don't believe you. It took Ruby years to get control, and she's not even reliable. The little one's going to do nothing but kill."

Regina shrugged. "I'll prove you wrong. Come here."

"Haha! No!"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Emma."

Emma grimaced but headed for the mayor.

"A monster would not know a friend, nor would she know that someone intends no harm. Lets test that."

Emma's eyes bugged slightly. Oh shit. She knew what she was supposed to do. She handed Regina the rifle she'd picked up. Regina took it by the barrel and closed her hand around it, the metal bending and warping in her grip until the rifle was useless.

Hesitantly, Emma moved toward the pair of wolves, holding her hand out in front of her like she would for a dog. The Belle-wolf gave her an irritated look, but turned her head slightly. Emma scratched behind her ears. Belle still glared at the mob.

"See, all good." Emma said, forcing a smile. Then she looked down at Ruby. She was on her side, panting desperately, blood and raw flesh… "Oh, shit. Get David out here immediately!" She pulled out her handgun and pointed it straight at the leader of the mob. "You fucking vigilantes! If she dies I'll have you all hanged for murder!"


	6. Chapter 6

Belle woke up on the floor of the vet's office. She scrambled to her feet. Ruby was lying on the large dog operating table, human again, an ugly chunk taken out of her shoulder. She was breathing at least. But her face was too calm, too still even for sleep. Belle shut her eyes, and let her fingers stroke Ruby's hair.

"Hey you," David said, coming in from the back of the vet's office. "Don't worry. She'll be all right. They weren't messing around with silver bullets or anything."

Belle let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Good," she said.

"Though she's definitely spending tonight in here under general anesthetic. We don't need her reinjuring herself."

Belle looked down. "What about me?"

David gave her arm a squeeze. "Let's play it by ear. Regina's people calming technique tends to result in them remembering exactly who's the real big bad in this town, and though that often distracts them from forming mobs, it's not one hundred percent reliable."

But as it went, Emma flipping out at the mob had had a reasonable effect, and Belle got a few apologies as she made her way from the vet's to the library.

Actually, she got an apology from nearly everyone she passed, which was odd. She wondered whether Rumpel had had a hand in stirring them up. He seemed to have orchestrated the whole thing, all for her. She wouldn't be surprised if he had orchestrated the mob as well.

Most of the apologizers, of course, assumed that she and Ruby were together.

"Sorry miss," said one. "If we had known you had wanted to become a wolf, well… we might have still gotten upset, but, you know, it wasn't right. No one should say Storybrooke is behind the times. Modernity, self-determination, gay marriage and all that."

Belle gave him a weak smile.

Another patted her on the shoulder. "Glad to see you've moved on from Mr. Gold. Ruby is, um, well, she tries."

Belle held back her glare. The town was nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.

A subsequent comment on how at least Ruby was good in bed and most of the town could vouch for it received a growl that made the young man look like he had wet his pants.

Belle made her way to her own bed, collapsed, and cried herself to sleep.

x x x

Emma was busily frowning sternly at passers-by when Regina appeared beside her. "I think they're all aware of your disapproval of lynch mobs, dear. Your screaming fit last night made that quite clear."

"I don't want them to get any ideas. I am keeping my eye on them."

Regina nodded. "Admirably so."

Emma gave her a suspicious look. "I'm sure you didn't just stop by to compliment me."

"No," Regina said. "I'm here to remind you that your bill is coming due. You owe me."

"Oh, I do, do I?"

"Indeed. I acted as your general purpose assistant and crime lab in this investigation, and I stepped in and handled things when you were useless. I had to teleport to the vet's office while carrying a smelly wolf _and_ keep her from bleeding out, and then you made me go back for the _other_ smelly wolf because you thought she might be lonely. I think you owe me quite a lot, actually."

"Did you figure out what to do about Gold?"

"We had a chat."

"Oh." Emma frowned. Being sheriff of a town where you were about as powerful as an insect in a stableyard was a bit depressing. It was contingent upon her to maintain a good relationship with at least one of the horses. She had picked her horse, and it seemed to be working out. The town ran as smooth as butter when the mayor and the sheriff were on the same side. And the mayor took payment in sex. It was really a no-lose proposition. "It's settled?"

"He seems happy to pretend that the incident never happened. He claims that all he wanted was Miss French's happiness, and if she is happy with the wolf, he wishes them the best."

"Ah. The graceful loser shtick. I'm… never totally comfortable with that one."

"No. But I think she hurt his pride with the 'I'd rather die than take anything from you' line. And, well, he knows that I enjoy seeing him unhappy. I'm invested in their future."

"Under your protection, eh? Let's not tell them that. I feel like it wouldn't be appreciated."

"But you appreciate it, don't you?"

Emma grinned at her. "Totally. Your house tonight?"

"I _did_ say you owed me."

x x x

That night a solitary wolf howled out its loneliness.

x x x

Sunday morning, nine thirty, Belle stepped into the diner. Only Granny was behind the counter, and she barely acknowledged Belle with a nod as she came in. Belle sat in her usual booth and started composing speeches in her head. She had given this a lot of thought once the wolf had settled down, and she had decided that her answer was no. She couldn't be with Ruby. It wouldn't work. She loved Ruby, for all her messy broken pieces – not in spite of them. But she didn't _want_ Ruby, not sexually, not when her wolf wasn't wild and high and burning for her. It just sounded… embarrassing.

She didn't blame Ruby for anything anymore. She knew who had caused this. And it wasn't all that bad, being a wolf. It was actually a bit exciting. Ruby had been right; it was a new world. (And mice were really surprisingly tasty.) Belle wanted to run with her next month, not have to learn the woods alone. But that wasn't the same as _dating_. She didn't have any experience with dating. Well… Lacey did. But that was _not_ good advice. It just wasn't going to work. It _couldn't_ work. Not after all the horrible things she'd said, the truths unearthed. Now she just had to figure out how to tell Ruby that without wrecking their friendship.

_It's not you, _she tried._ You're wonderful. I'm just still a total mess after Rumpel and I'm not ready for another relationship. I did just have to tell him I'd rather die than have anything to do with him again, and I meant it, and does that really sound stable to you?_

Or maybe…

_The wolf is calm now, and I can think, and I've been thinking that this is a terrible idea. I care about you so much and if we messed this up, I'd lose my best friend, and everything is so precarious already. I kind of just want to keep you in love with me without my being responsible for any of it so I don't screw it all up._

Something sounded a little odd about the end of that one. She tried again.

_You're really the most beautiful person in town, and anyone would be lucky to have you interested in them, but I'm not all that attracted to women, except for when I'm a wolf in heat, so can we just be friends? I'm okay with friend-snuggling and petting and maybe a little making out, but only a little, I'm serious about this!_

Or…

But before she could come up with another, the door opened with a jingle, and Ruby stepped in. Belle's brain froze.

Ruby was dressed casually, in skinny jeans and a half unbuttoned white shirt over a red camisole, hair a mess of curls, a little untidy, which was probably due to the sling she still wore on one arm. Her eyes immediately went to Belle, and a half-tentative smile crossed her face.

She was gorgeous.

Belle was up from the table in a moment and, before she could think, had grabbed Ruby by her good arm and dragged her behind the counter and into the giant freezer.

"Um, Belle? What—"

Belle didn't let her finish her question. She pushed Ruby against the frozen lasagna and kissed her.

Ruby let out a soft breath into the kiss, then cupped Belle's cheek and kissed her back, sweet and gentle, and Belle's heart clenched in her chest. But then Ruby laughed into the kiss that Belle had to break it off.

"What?" Belle asked her, a little annoyed.

"I just," her thumb ran across Belle's cheekbone. "I walked in here sure you were going to give me the heave-ho. This was kind of an awesome surprise." Her eyes were lit with laughter, and Belle bit her lip to keep herself from smiling.

"Yeah," she said. "It was kind of a surprise to me too."

Ruby made a fake appalled face, leaning down to look her in the eyes. "You _were_ going to dump me."

Ruby's hair fell a little into her eyes, and Belle pushed it back and cupped her ears. "Yeah," she said. "But, you know, the wolf's napping, and you're… you."

"Yes," Ruby said, smirking. "I'm usually me, when I'm not a wolf. Or just Ruby, or just Red, or having a psychotic break."

"Shut up," Belle told her, having a hard time keeping herself from laughing. "I'm trying to confess myself here."

"Oh please go ahead."

Belle wrinkled her nose at her. "You just think you're so cool, don't you?"

"Hey, my favorite girl just pulled me into a freezer and kissed me. There will be no wallowing in self-pity today. I am on top of the world."

Belle just stared at her for a long moment, her sweet eyes and self-satisfied grin. "Fine," she said. "Fine. I want you, _and_ I love you. And you had better make a good girlfriend because I am done with trying to fix people."

"I am glad to hear it," said Ruby.

Belle smacked her good arm. "You are the _most_ annoying person, aren't you? You're lucky I think you're charming."

"Very lucky. Now, are you going to kiss me again? Because if you aren't, I'm going to suggest we move this conversation somewhere besides the freezer before I lose my toes."

Belle rolled her eyes and pushed up on her toes to kiss her again.

This time no one laughed.

Ruby's mouth was warm and soft, lips parted, tongue flickering out to meet hers in a light, snake-like brush. Belle tipped her head back, opening up to her. She was going to remember it this time. She would not forget this, not a moment or a touch. She slipped her arms around Ruby's neck, tangling her fingers in her hair. Ruby tugged on her lower lip with her teeth. Her hands slipped up under Belle's shirt, cool against her hot skin. Belle arched against her, breaking the kiss to take a gasp of chill air, then burying her face in her neck. She bit, and Ruby let out a whimper, pulling her tight into her body. She felt a momentary stir of interest from her wolf, but it lay down again as she dragged her teeth along Ruby's throat. Apparently biting was just them, and not a wolf thing at all.

Belle felt the rough nylon of the sling strap rub against her forearm and pulled back. "This doesn't hurt, does it? Tell me if it hurts."

"Nothing hurts," Ruby murmured, her voice soft and just a tiny bit breathy. "I don't think anything could, right now." Ruby pushed Belle's hair out of her face, and leaned in, letting their lips brush in a feather-like kiss.

"That's not… comforting, really." But Belle could hardly focus. Ruby's face was flushed, eyes bright. She licked her lips, and Belle had had enough. She moved in again, kissing her hard, fumbling to unbutton her shirt and push up her camisole. Her hands touched soft flesh, and she choked.

"You're not wearing a _bra_."

Ruby grinned. "With this shoulder?"

_Oh_. Of course. "You're laughing at me again."

"You're the one with your hands on my boobs."

Belle bit her lip. She was, wasn't she? She stepped in close, running her thumbs over Ruby's nipples. They tightened under her touch, and Ruby's breath caught. She tilted her head up and their mouths met again. Ruby's knee slid between her legs, rucking up her pleated skirt, the denim of her jeans rough against her skin. Belle's fingers teased and pinched, and god, how had she even _thought_ that she didn't want this? She rode up on Ruby's knee, pressing her more firmly against the freezer racks. Ruby broke the wet, openmouthed kiss, panting, and caught her by the waist, holding her steady. Belle went for the fastenings of Ruby's jeans.

"God, the one day you aren't wearing a miniskirt—" She got the button undone and jerked the zipper down, and Ruby half laughed and half choked, as she burrowed inside, sliding her hand between her legs.

"You— oh god. What are you…"

"This is my choice," she murmured into Ruby's ear. "I want you."

Ruby bit her earlobe and growled a little. "_Take me_."

Her underwear was already wet, and Belle didn't hesitate, just twitched them aside and slid into her and Ruby's arms closed around her shoulders and pulled her in tight, her chest shuddering, her hips bucking into Belle's hand.

Belle pressed her face into the crook of Ruby's neck and hooked her free arm around her shoulders. Ruby's hands slid down her back and clasped her butt, pulling her in and sliding her up her thigh.Half grinding half fucking, her fingers buried deep inside of Ruby, Belle kissed her hard. Their hips moved together. Ruby whimpered, nails cutting into Belle's skin, clenching around her fingers. "_God_."

Belle smirked against her skin as Ruby came, hard and wet and gasping, and let go.

x x x

"Lord almighty, you two! This is a food service institution. That's unhygienic!"

Granny stormed out with a tray of lasagna and Belle and Ruby scrambled to refasten their clothes.

Distracted by Ruby's tight, flat stomach as she helped adjust her camisole and button up her shirt, Belle frowned, considering. "Did we ever find out whether it was possible for werewolves to have pups from lesbian heat sex?"

Ruby's eyebrows shot up. "Uhhh… no?"

"Oh well," Belle said. "I suppose we'll find out."

Ruby looked a bit stunned. It was endearing, seeing her mussed and undone and bewildered. Belle wanted to see her naked too. She wanted… everything.

She caught Ruby by her sling strap and tugged her toward the door. "Bed now? Then lunch, then maybe a ramble in the woods? And you can stay tonight, right? I kind of… want you around." Belle felt her face heat up. Maybe that was too much. This was just supposed to be a first _date_. But it hadn't felt like a first anything. It had felt like… _finally._

Ruby smiled, warm and easy and _happy,_ honestly happy in a way she hadn't seemed before. Belle's embarrassment faded, replaced by astonishment that she could cause that sort of feeling in anyone. But she knew it well. She was feeling it too.

Ruby removed Belle's hand from her sling strap and put it around her waist instead, then pulled her in. She pressed a kiss against the side of Belle's head. Belle leaned into her shoulder and just breathed her in.

"It sounds perfect."

_FIN_


End file.
